ROYAL? HEbPS 

FOR 

bOYAb blVING 



7 

hi 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

t ; 



Co^rigltt If a 

Shelf .jE_5. 

UNKTED STATES OF AMERICA. 



ROYAL HELPS 

FOR 

LOYAL LIVING 



COMPILED BY/' 

MARTHA WALLACE RICHARDSON 




OF WkV^ I 



NEW YORK 
THOMAS WHITTAKER 

2 and 3 Bible House 



DEDICATED 

TO THE MEMORY OF 

jfreb, ft>, TRicbar&son. 

" He being dead yei speaketh" 



Let us walk softly, friend ; 
For strange paths lie before us all untrod ; 
The New Year, spotless from the hand of God, 

Is thine and mine, O friend ! 

Lillian Grey. 



January l. 



Let every man take heed how he buildeth. — 
i Cor. iii, 10. 

Master, to do great work for thee, my hand 
Is far too weak ! Thou givest what may suit — 
Some little chips to cut with care minute, 
Or tint, or grave, or polish. Others stand 
Before their quarried marble fair and grand, 
And make a life work of the great design 
Which thou hast traced ; or many skilled combine 
To build vast temples, gloriously planned. 
Yet take the tiny stones which I have wrought, 
Just one by one, as they were given by thee, 
Not knowing what came next in thy wise thought ; 
Set each stone by thy master-hand of grace ; 
Form the mosaic as thou wilt for me, 
And in thy temple-pavement give it place. 



OD is building in us something that tran- 



scends anything that man ever knew ; 
he is building it by the power of his might ; 
and he is building it by us, and in us, and 
through us, and in spite of our implorations 
that he would desist. Blessed be God, who 
builds though we seek to hinder his build- 
ing, and though we would sometimes even 
pull down and destroy that which he is 
building. beecher. 



F. R. HAVERGAL. 




" God may seem slow, but he is building 
men's characters for an eternal life." 



2 



January 2, 



I will direct their work in truth. — Isaiah 
Ixi. 8. 

Get leave to work 
In this world — 'tis the best you get at all, 
For God in cursing gives us better gifts 
Than man in benedictions. 

MRS. BROWNING. 

THE same recipe that Goethe gave for 
enjoyment of life applies equally to 
all work. " Do the thing that lies next you." 
That is all our business. Hurried results are 
worse than none. We must force nothing, 
but be partakers of the divine patience. How 
long it took to make the cradle ; and we feel 
troubled that the baby Humanity is not read- 
ing Euclid and Plato, even that it is not under- 
standing the Gospel of St. John ; if there is 
one thing evident in the world's history, it is 
that God hasteneth not. All haste implies 
weakness. Time is as cheap as space and 
matter. geo. macdonald. 

God is a kind Father. . . He chooses 
work for every creature which will be de- 
lightful to them, if they do it simply and 
humbly. ruskin. 

Work : for I am with you, saith the Lord 

Of hosts. HAGGAI. 



Work and love : that is the body and soul 
of the human being. Happy he where they 
are one. auerbach. 



3-anuarg 3, 



3 



And his banner over me was love. — Cant. ii. 4. 



There is a rest remaining. Hast thou sinned ? 
There is a sacrifice. Lift up thy head. 
The iovely world, and the over world alike, 
Ring with a song eterne, a happy rede : 
Thy Father loves thee. 



OTHING is sweeter than love, nothing 



^ stronger, nothing higher, nothing broader, 
nothing better either in heaven or earth, 
because love is born of God, and, rising above 
all created things, can find its rest in him 



People live, not because they care for 
themselves, but through and by the love that 
other people bear them. . . God does not 
wish men to live apart, therefore he has not 
revealed to them what each needs for himself. 
He wishes them to live together, and there- 
fore reveals to each the other's wants. . . 
Man lives not by care for himself, but by 
Love. TOLSTOI. 

What is the measure of love we owe to 
others ? It is the measure of what we think 
is owing to ourselves. dean Stanley. 



Art tired ? 



jean ingelow. 




alone. 



THOMAS A KEMPIS. 



4 



3-anuarg 4. 



Be not deceived, God is not mocked j for 
whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also 
reap. — Gal. vi. 7. 

The field is the world. — St. Matthew. 

" The tissues of the life to be 

We weave with colors all our own ; 
And in the field of Destiny 
We reap as we have sown/' 



HESE processes of Nature when thou 



sowest grain, are only shadows and shells 
of the processes of God, when thou sowest 
good. . . All that we see is pattern of what 
shall be in the Mount. 



A holy act strengthens the inward holiness. 
It is a seed of life growing into more life. . . 
You reap what you sow — not something else, 
but that. An act of love makes the soul more 
loving. A deed of humbleness deepens hum- 
bleness. The thing reaped is the very thing 
sown, multipled a hundred fold. You have 
sown the seed of life, you reap life everlasting. 




ROBERT COLLYER. 



F. W. ROBERTSON. 



January 5. 



5 



Keep thy heart with all dilige?ice : for out of 
it are the issues of life. — Prov. iv. 23. 

Govern thy lips 
As they were palace doors, the king within. 

EDWIN ARNOLD. 

TIE who walks through life with an even 
* * temper and a gentle patience, patient 
with himself, patient with others, patient with 
difficulties and crosses, he has an everyday 
greatness beyond that which is won in battle 
or chanted in cathedrals. dr. dewey. 

He who holds the secret of the wheel may 
make the rivers do what work he would. 

GEORGE ELIOT. 

There is only one person you need to 
manage, and that is yourself. 

T. DE WITT TALMAGE. 

No form of vice, not worldliness, not greed 
of gold, not drunkenness itself, does more to 
unchristianize society than evil temper. . . 
How many prodigals are kept out of the 
Kingdom of God by the unlovely character 
of those who profess to be inside. 

DRUMMOND. 



6 



3-anuarg 6. 



Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all 
generations. 

Before the mountains were brought forth or 
ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, 
even fro?n everlasting thou art God, — Psalm 

XC. I, 2. 

Therefore to whom turn I but to thee, the ineffable 

Name ? 

Builder and maker, thou, of house not made with hands ! 
What, have fear of change from thee who art ever the 
same ? 

Doubt that thy power can fill the heart that thy power 

expands ? 
There shall never be one lost good ! 
What was shall live as before. 

The evil is null, is naught, is silence implying sound. 
What was good shall be good, with, for evil, so much 
good more. 

On earth the broken arcs ; in Heaven the perfect round. 



HE Infinite Goodness is not far off, but near 



A us : . . the evening shade, the guarded 
sleep, the morning resurrection, every bounty 
that falls from heaven, every bounty that 
springs from the earth, every loving heart 
that blesses us, every sacred example that 
wins us, all these are the revelation, the mani- 
fested love of the One, all holy, all-perfect, 
whom to know is life. dr. dewey. 



ROBERT BROWNING. 




January 7* 



7 



Thou hast girded me with strength unto the 
battle: thou hast subdued under me those that 
rose up against me. — Psalm xviii. 39. 

That virtue may live it must resist. 
And that which it resists must live also. 

HOLLAND. 

He only earns his freedom and existence, 
Who daily conquers them anew. 

GOETHE. 

TF a man is not rising upward to be an angel, 
* depend upon it he is sinking downward to 
be a devil. He cannot stop at the beast. 
The most savage of men are not beasts ; they 
are worse, a great deal worse. As there is 
much beast and some devil in man, so is there 
some angel and some God in him. The beast 
and the devil may be conquered, but, in this 
life, never wholly destroyed. coleridge. 

An obstacle is not something put in a man's 
path to block him ; it is something put there 
to make him climb up and over, if he cannot 
move it. lawson valentine. 

God has put us here to stay. We are not 
to run away, but to face the issue and to 
grapple with it. henry c. potter. 



8 



5anuarg 8. 



Be strong therefore and show thyself a man. 
— i Kings ii. 2. 

When man hath tamed nature, asserted his place 
And dominion, behold ! he is brought face to face 
With a new foe — himself ! owen Meredith. 

Then life is to wake, not sleep ; 

Rise, and not rest, but press 
From earth's level where blindly creep 

Things perfected, more or less, 
To the heaven's height far and steep. 

ROBERT BROWNING. 

TF we are soldiers of the cross, we must be 
A harnessed for the battle. An unarmed 
warrior is the sport of his foes. 

Where, then, are the weapons of our war- 
fare? The Captain of our salvation has fur- 
nished them for his followers — weapons of 
heavenly temper, armor of perfect proof. 
How exquisite its texture ! How complete 
its parts ! No member lacks its piece. 

We must therefore take to us the whole 
armor of God, " that we may be able to stand 
in the evil day." stowell. 

Above all, taking the shield of Faith, where- 
with ye shall be able to quench all the fiery 
darts of the wicked. st. paul. 



S-anuarg 0. 



9 



And this commandment have we from him, 
That he who loveth God, love his brother also. — 
i John iv. 21. 

Oh, brother man, fold to thy heart thy brother. 
Where pity dwells the peace of God is there. 
To worship rightly is to love each other, 
Each smile a hymn, each kindly deed a prayer. 

WHITTIER. 

\ A /HEN men touch each other with the 
* * touch of God, and love each other with 
the love of God, and serve each other with 
the sacrificial heart of God, then the race will 
be one concordant family. The solvent of 
every problem of society is the love of God. 

GEORGE D. HERRON. 

" Have we not all one Father, him who 
created us all of one blood ? Are we not 
all brethren ? Bear we not God's image ? 
Breathed he not of his quickening Spirit 
into us ? Canst thou not endure with thy 
brother's small offenses for a brief time, 
when thy Father has endured thy many 
and often flagrant sins through thy whole 
life ? Oh, my brother ! put away far from 
thee all anger — contempt— evil-speaking — 
evil-suggestions — all that savors not of hu- 
mility. . . " 



to 



January 10. 



Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy 
brother, — Deut. xv. ii. 

He gives nothing; but worthless gold 

Who gives from a sense of duty ; 

But he who gives a slender mite, 

And gives to that which is out of sight, 

That thread of the all sustaining beauty 

Which runs through all and doth all unite, 

The hand cannot clasp the whole of his alms, 

The heart outstretches its eager palms, 

For a God goes with it and makes it store 

To the soul that was starving in darkness before. 

LOWELL. 

Give, if thou canst, an alms ; if not, afford, 
Instead of that, a sweet and gentle word. 

HERRICK. 

FRIENDS, cast your idol into the furnace, 
melt your mammon down, coin him up, 
make God's money of him, and send him 
coursing. Make of him cups to carry the gift 
of God. The water of life, through the world — 
in lovely justice to the oppressed, in healthful 
labor to them whom no man hath hired, in 
rest to the weary who have borne the burden 
and heat of the day, in joy to the heavy 
hearted, in laughter to the dull spirited. . . 
What true gifts might not the mammon of 
unrighteousness, changed back into the 
money of God, give to men and women, bone 
of our bone, and flesh of our flesh. 

GEORGE MACDONALD. 



January 1U 



ii 



The Son of man came not to be ministered 
unto y but to minister. — Matt. xx. 28. 

Amid all life's guests 
There seems but worthy one — to do men good : 
It matters not how long we live, but how ; 
For as the parts of one mankind while here 
We live in every age. 

bailey's festus. 

"CVERY individual will be the happier the 
— more clearly he understands that his 
vocation consists, not in exacting service 
from others, but in ministering to others, in 
giving his life the ransom of many. A man 
who does this will be worthy of his food and 
will not fail to have it. tolstoi. 

Disinterested love and self denying ser- 
vice to our fellow creature are the most 
acceptable worship we can offer our Creator. 
Genuine greatness is marked by simplicity, 
unostentatiousness, self forgetfulness, a 
hearty interest in others, a feeling of 
brotherhood with the human family. 

CHANNING. 

There is no service like his who serves 
because he loves. sir philip Sidney. 



By love serve one another. 



ST. PAUL. 



12 



January \2. 



We have done that which was our duty to 
do. — Luke xvii. 10. 

'* If man aspire to reach the throne of God, 
O'er the dull plains of earth must lie his road. 
He who best does his lowly duty here 
Shall mount the highest in a nobler sphere ; 
At God's own feet our spirits seek their rest, 
And he is nearest him who serves him best." 

THE highest state of religious life is when 
a man sacrifices every personal and 
worldly advantage, encounters every annoy- 
ance or peril, if need be, rather than be in 
the least untrue to what his soul believes the 
commandments of God. j. storrs smith. 

You may choose to forsake your duties, 
and choose not to have the sorrow they 
bring : but you will go forth : and what will 
you find ? Sorrow without duty — bitter herbs 
and no bread with them. george eliot. 

Trusting in God and doing our duty : 
these are words which bind us together. If 
you or I can feel that those who know us 
best can say of us that we are trusting God 
and doing our duty, it is enough to teach us 
that this is a ground of communion which 
neither the difference of external rites, nor 
the difference of seas or continents can ever 
efface. dean Stanley. 

Science is made for few men. Duty is 
the mistress of all men ! they cannot be men 

Without it. W. E. GLADSTONE. 



3-anuarg 13, 



13 



Judge this rather, that no man put a stumb- 
ling block or an occasion to fall in his brother s 
way. — Rom. xiv. 13. 

O may I join the choir invisible 

Of those immortal dead who live again 

In minds made better by their presence. 



OD and good angels alone know the vast 



incalculable influence that goes out into 
the universe of matter, from the conquered 
evil and the voiceless prayer of one solitary 
soul. Wouldst thou bring the world unto 
God ? Then live near to him thyself. If 
divine life pervade thine own soul, everything 
that touches thee will receive the electric 
spark, though thou mayst be unconscious of 
being charged therewith. l. m. child. 

It seems to me that preaching is of infi- 
nitely smaller account than the life which 
mirrors Christ. That is bound to tell ; with- 
out speech or language — like the voices of 
the stars. It throws out its impressions upon 
every side. The one simple thing we have to 
do is to be there — in the right relation ; to go 
through life hand in hand with him. 



GEORGE ELIOT. 




DRUMMOND, 



14 



Januarg 



A,n image was before mine eyes. — Job iv. 16. 

What if Earth 
Be but the shadow of Heaven? — and things therein 
Each to other like, more than on earth is thought. 

MILTON. 

" Couldst thou in vision see 
Thyself the man God meant, 
Thou nevermore wouldst be 
The man thou art — content." 

Is not the vision he ? tho' he be not that which he seems ? 
Dreams are true while they last, and do we not live in 
dreams ? tennyson. 

A man's reach should exceed his grasp, 
Or what's a heaven for ? 

ROBERT BROWNING. 

Men, as men, 

Can reach no higher than the Son of God, 
The perfect head and pattern of mankind. 

HARRIET ELEANOR HAMILTON KING. 

TF I cannot realize my Ideal, I can at least 
* idealize my Real. gannett. 

If one advances confidently in the direction 
of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life 
which he has imagined, he will meet with suc- 
cess unexpected in common hours. . . If 
you have built castles in the air, your work 
need not be lost ; that is where they should 
be. Now put the foundations under them. 

THOREAU. 



January 15, 



15 



As ye are partakers of the suffering, so shall 
ye be also of the co?isolation. — 2 Cor. i, 7. 

Well I know thy sorrow, 

Oh, my servant true : 
Thou art very weary, — 

I was weary too. 
But that toil shall make thee 

Some day all mine own : 
And the end of sorrow 

Shall be near my throne. 

J. M. NEALE, TR. 

O TRANGELY do some people talk of "get- 
^ ting over " a great sorrow. Not so. No 
one ever does that ; at least no nature which 
can be touched by the feeling of grief at all. 
The only way is to pass through the ocean of 
affliction solemnly, slowly, with humility and 
faith, as the Israelites passed through the sea. 
Then its very waves of misery will divide and 
become to us a wall on the right side and on 
the left, until the gulf narrows and narrows 
before our eyes, and we land safe on the 
opposite shore. 

D. M. CRAIK. 



i6 



Sanuarg 16* 



God is a Spirit : and they that worship him, 
must worship him in spirit and in truth. — 
John iv, 24. 

Without star or angel for their guide, 
Who worship God shall find him. 
Humble love 

And not proud reason, keeps the door of Heaven. 

YOUNG. 

\ A / HEN we withdraw from some great 
* * light of truth we feel the subtle influ- 
ence of having been in the Great Presence. 

FRANCIS PARKER. 

I can never be alone in the world, for the 
world itself is the presence of God to my 
mind and heart. Wherever I turn my feet, 
wherever I turn my thought, I encounter the 
besetting God. The morning comes. He 
floods me with his light ; in the evening the 
heavens are all eyes, through which he gazes 
as a pitying Father on his child. Every proc- 
ess in nature is the going forth of the Ever- 
lasting on his messages of love, and every 
event in my experience is a message of love 
fulfilled in me. F. H, hedge. 



January 17, 



*7 



The hope of the righteous shall be gladness* 
— Prov. x. 28. 

" I hear it singing, singing sweetly, 
Softly in an undertone : 
Singing as if God had taught it, 
' It is better farther on.' 

" Night and day it sings the same song, 
Sings it while I sit alone, 
Sings it so the heart can hear it, 
' It is better farther on.' 

" Sits upon the grave and sings it, 
Sings it when the heart would groan, 
Sings it when the shadows darken, 
1 It is better farther on.' 

" Farther on ! how much farther ? 
Count the mile stones one by one ? 
No, no counting, only trusting) 
' It is better farther on. ' " 

THERE is a life not far beyond this : and 
there is reason to hope, there is reason 
to believe, that the silver cords which are 
broken here shall be brought together again 
there : that the golden bowl shall be restored 
never to be broken again : that the pitcher 
shall never more be broken at the fountain, 
nor the wheel at the cistern ; and that there 
shall be joy in the presence of God over a 
noble community of men made perfect, and 
ransomed from the flesh. The experiences 
of this life are but so many lessons by which 
men learn of their nobler manhood and 
higher nature. Blessed things lie just before 

yOU. BEECHER. 



iS 



3-anuare 18, 



But 1 say unto you which hear, Love your 
enemies, do good to them which hate you, and 
pray for them which despite fully use you. — 
Luke vi. 27, 28. 



No farther strife nor enmity 

Between us twain : we both have erred ! 

Too rash in act, too wroth in word, 

From the beginning have we stood 

In fierce, defiant attitude, 

Each thoughtless of the other's right, 

And each reliant on his might. 

But now our souls are more subdued : 

The hand of God, and not in vain 

Has touched us with the fire of pain. 

Let us kneel down, and side by side 

Pray, till our souls are purified, 

And pardon will not be denied ! 



TTE who refuses forgiveness, breaks the 
* * bridge over which he must pass, for all 
need forgiveness." 

Are there any of us who can look back on 
wrong and injury done to us by our fellow- 
men ? This, if we were wise, we would not 
wish to forget. For more noble is it to 
remember in full, and yet forgive : to retain 
our sensitiveness unimpaired, and yet to take 
the offending brother to our hearts as if he 
had done us no wrong. 



Let there be 



LONGFELLOW. 




A. P. PEABODY. 



January 19* 



19 



Fvr what saith the scripture ? — Rom. iv. 3. 

This book, this holy book, on every line 
Marked with the seal of high divinity, 
On every leaf bedewed with drops of love 
Divine, and with the eternal heraldry 
And signature of God Almighty stamped 
From first to last, — this ray of sacred light, 
This lamp from off the everlasting throne, 
Mercy took down, and in the night of time 
Stood, casting on the dark her gracious bow : 
And evermore beseeching men, with tears 
And earnest sighs, to read, believe, and live. 

POLLOK. 

T KNOW that the Bible is inspired, because 
* it finds me at a greater depth of my being 
than any other book. coleridge. 

Our curiosity often hinders us in reading 
the Scriptures, when we desire to look into 
and discuss those passages where we should 
simply pass on. thomas a kempis. 

Life is a better commentary on the prac- 
tical sides of the Bible than anything else. 
You do not need so much to turn and ask 
what the Greek is in the passage. You want 
to know what the English is. You do not 
need so much to ask what is the construction 
as to go out and take your book in your 
hand and see if these things are so. 

beecher. 



20 



January 20. 



The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, 
hath made me free from the law of sin and 
death. — Rom. viii. 2. 

Who are the free ? 
They who have scorned the tyrant and his rod 
And bowed in worship unto none but God : 
They who have made the conqueror's glory dim. 
Unchained in soul, though manacled in limb, 
Unwarped by prejudice, unawed by wrong : 
Friend to the weak, and fearless of the strong, 
True to the law of right, as warmly prone 
To grant another's as to maintain their own : 
Foes of oppression wheresoe'er it be, 

These are the proudly free. 

PRINCE. 

A A 7HOM Christ liberates is free by his own 
* * will. It is not that he would and can- 
not, but that he can and will not. 

F. W. ROBERTSON. 

We are learning that no one can see all of 
truth, that our doubting neighbor may be as 
honest as we are, that as many causes tend to 
make men think differently as alike, and we 
are also learning that the main thing is to 
cast out Satan, and not to walk together. 

T. T. HUNGER. 

To be free is not to do nothing, but to be 
the sole arbiter of what we do, and what we 
leave undone. la bruyere. 



January 21 . 



2 I 



Be kindly affectioned one to another with 
brotherly love. — Rom. xii. 10. 

T/IND looks, kind words, kind acts, and 
warm handshakes — these are the second- 
ary means of grace when men are in trouble, 
and are fighting their unseen battles. 

DR. JOHN HALL. 

Man has one power in particular, which is 
not sufficiently dwelt on, and with which we 
will at present occupy ourselves. It is the 
power of making the world happy, or at least 
of so greatly diminishing the amount of un- 
happiness in it as to make quite a different 
world from what it is at present. The power 
is called kindness. The worst kinds of un- 
happiness, as well as the greatest amount of 
it, come from our conduct to each other. If 
our conduct therefore were under the control 
of kindness, it would be nearly the opposite 
of what it is, and so the state of the world 
would be almost reversed. We are for the 
most part unhappy, because the world is an 
unkind world. But the world is only unkind 
for the lack of kindness in us units who com- 
pose it. 

REV. FREDERICK W. FABER, D. D. 



2 2 



January 22. 



A friend loveth at all times. — Pro v. xvii. 17. 

All are friends in heaven, all faithful friends : 
And many friendships in the days of time 
Begun, are lasting here, and growing still. 

POLLOK. 

" The warm true heart of a loving friend, 
Ah, what could the treasure buy ? 
The heaped up gold of the whole earth round 
Would fly in the balance high." 

"CTPEND all things else, but of old friends 
^ be most miserly." 

The highest moment known on earth by 
the merely natural, is that in which the mys- 
terious union of heart with heart is felt, call it 
friendship, love, what you will. . . when, as 
as it were, moving about in the darkness and 
loneliness of existence, we suddenly come in 
contact with something, and we find that 
spirit has touched spirit. 

F. W. ROBERTSON. 

Let us therefore make the best of our 
friends while we have them. He that has 
lost a friend has more cause of joy that he 
once had him, than of grief that he is taken 
away. That which is past we are sure of, 
It is impossible to make it not to have been. 

SENECA. 



5anuar£ 23. 



23 



As in water face answer eth to face, so the 
heart of man to man. — Prov. xxvii. 19. 

No one is so accursed by fate, 
No one so utterly desolate, 
But some heart, though unknown, 
Responds unto his own. 



HERE are many eyes that can detect and 



* honor the prudent and household vir- 
tues : there are many that can discern Genius 
on his starry track, though the mob is incap- 
able ; but when that love which is all suffer- 
ing, all-abstaining, all-aspiring — which has 
vowed to itself that it will be a wretch and 
also a fool in this world sooner than soil its 
white hands by any compliances — comes into 
our streets and houses, only the pure and 
aspiring can know its face, and the only com- 
pliment they can pay it is to own it. 



There are people who understand one 
another at once. When one soul meets 
another, it is not by pass-word, nor by hail- 
ing sign, nor by mysterious grip that they 
recognize. The subtlest freemasonry in the 
world is this freemasonry of the spirit. 



LONGFELLOW. 




EMERSON. 



EDWARD EGGLESTON. 



24 



January 24. 



Man looketh on the outward appearance, but 
the Lord looketh on the heart. — i Sam. xvi. 7. 

The cross on Golgotha will never save thy soul : 

The cross in thine own heart alone can make thee whole. 



HO is it that, when years are gone by, 



y y we remember with the purest gratitude 
and pleasure ? Not the learned or clever, or 
the rich, or the powerful, that we may have 
known in our passage through life ; but those 
who have had the force of character to prefer 
the future to the present ; the good of others 
to their own pleasure. These it is who leave 
a mark in the world, more really lasting than 
pyramid or temple, because it is a mark that 
outlasts this life, and will be found in the life 
to come. 

Give us a character on which we can 
thoroughly depend, which we are sure will 
not fail us in time of need, which we know to 
be based on principle and on the fear of God, 
and it is wonderful how many brilliant and 
popular and splendid qualities we can safely 
and gladly dispense with. 



s:les:us. 




DEAN STANLEY. 



January 25* 



25 



Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any 
ma?i will co7?ie after me, let him deny himself, 
aud take up his cross, and follow me. 

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it : 
and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall 
find it, — Matt. xvi. 24, 25. 

But if impatient thou let slip thy cross, 
Thou wilt not find it in this world again, 
Nor in another ; here and here alone 
Is given thee to suffer for God s sake. 



HE moral progress of the race has been 



1 through sacrifice. It is the divine order 
of culture. The race's divinest types are 
always dying that the race may live. The 
world has thriven on the sufferings of those 
who have loved it and given themselves for it. 
Every new truth which men have learned 
has been read in the blaze of martyrs' fires. 
Every great reform has been won at unreck- 
onable cost. A Calvary is the tribute Free- 
dom always claims from men. . . We are 
willing enough that Christ should have been 
crucified for us, but are angered at the thought 
of being crucified for him. It is so much 
easier to worship Christ than go up and share 
with him his cross. 



HARRIET ELEANOR HAMILTON KING. 




GEORGE D. HERRON. 



2 6 



January 26, 



And I saw a new heaven and a new earth : 
for the first heaven and the first earth were 
passed away, — Rev. xxi. i. 

" What is heaven?" 

Child, how can I tell 
Of the beauty that rests on " the city of God " ? 
Mine eyes have not seen it, my feet have not trod 
Its golden paved streets set with jewels whose worth 
Outshine and outvalue the jewels of earth. 
And what is heaven ? I know only this : 
" 'Tis the birthplace of glory, the essence of bliss." 

" Where is heaven ? " 

Dear, how do I know ? 
We gaze into space through the blue throbbing air 
Sun-crowned and star-gemmed, and we say it is there, 
Above and beyond us, more high and more high, 
God's palace, whose floor is our beautiful sky, 
And where is heaven ? I know only this : 
" 'Tis the hope of all ages wherever it is." 

rose hartwick thorpe in New York Observer. 

And heaven, whate'er betide, 

Spreads somewhere, on death's farther side. 

EDWIN ARNOLD. 

\ \ THERE Thou art, there is heaven ; and 
* * where Thou art not, there is death 
and hell. thomas a kempis. 

Nevertheless we, according to his prom- 
ise, look for new heavens and a new earth, 
wherein dwelleth righteousness. — 2 Peter iii. 
13. 



3-anuarg 27. 



^7 



Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day 
long. — Prov. xxiii. 17. 

Take a little dash of water cold, 

And a little leaven of prayer, 
And a little bit of morning gold, 

Dissolved in the morning air. 

Add to your meal some merriment 
And a thought for kith and kin, 

And then as your prime ingredient 
A plenty of work throw in. 

But spice it all with the essence of love 

And a little whiff of play, 
Let a wise old book and a glance above 

Complete the well-made day. 

AMOS R. WELLS. 

From Christia7i Union. 

T ET it be our happiness this day to add to 
" the happiness of those around us, to com- 
fort some sorrow, to relieve some want, to 
add some strength to our neighbors' virtue. 

CHANNING. 

"As the duty of every day requires." 
That is a simple rule. Let it be pondered 
well. Resolve when you awake that it shall 
be to some faithful purpose, and that your 
renovated powers shall be obedient to Him 
who has renewed them. Let not the oppor- 
tunity that is so fleeting and yet so full pass 
neglected away. frothingham. 



2 8 January* 2S. 



As the hart panteth after the -cater brooks, 
so panteth my soul after thee, O God. — Psalm 
xlii. i. 

Open, thou trembling; one, the portal wide, 
And to the inmost chamber of thy breast 
Take home the heavenly guest ! 
He for the famished shall a feast provide, 
And thou shalt taste the bread of life, and see 
The Lord of angels, come to sup with thee. 



E offers to raise us up above the power 



1 1 of sin, above the power of temptation, 
above the sordid nature of life, that we may 
walk in the elevation in which Christ Jesus 
walked. Do you want it ? He offers to 
make us sit in heavenly places with Christ 
Jesus, not by and by, but. now and here. 
Blessed are those that hunger and thirst after 
righteousness, for they shall be filled. Do 
you so hunger ? The dove waits, and the 
voice, and it does but need the baptism of 
consecration and the dove would alight on 
your head and on mine, and the voice would 
come out of the now silent heaven and speak 
to us as it spoke to Him of olden time, "You 
are my beloved son." 



ELIZABETH F . ELLET. 




LYMAN ABBOTT. 



29 



A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in 
pictures of silver. — Pro v. xxv. 11. 

Words are lighter than the cloud foam 

Of the restless ocean spray, 
Vainer than the trembling shadow 

That the next hour steals away. 
By the fall of summer raindrops 

Is the air as deeply stirred ; 
And the rose leaf that we tread on 

Will outlive a word. 

Yet, on the dull silence breaking 

With a lightning flash, a word 
Bearing endless desolation 

On its blighting wings I heard. 
Earth can forge no keener weapon, 

Dealing surer death and pain, 
And the cruel echo answered 

Through long years again. 

ADELAIDE PROCTOR. 

IT is a great thing, as we often hear it said, to 
have " right men in right places," but it 
is also a great thing, and one which more 
nearly concerns our individual practice, to 
have the right man doing the right thing, 
and the right thing said and done in the right 
place, and at the right time, and in the right 
way. A right thing done in a wrong way 
is often more mischievous than a thing done 
wrong altogether. An amusement in itself 
quite innocent, a practice in itself most holy, 
a rebuke in itself most just, will become 
almost wicked if said or done by a wrong 
person or in a wrong place. 

PEAN STANLEY. 



3o 



January 30, 



Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward 
parts. — Psalm li. 6. 

XTO mere spasm of goodness will make a 
^ right life, for we rise no higher than our 
habitual thinking. m. w. r. 

What I must do is all that concerns me, 
not what the people think. It is easy in soli- 
tude to live after our own opinions ; but the 
great man is he who in the midst of the crowd 
keeps with perfect sweetness the indepen- 
dence of solitude. emerson. 

" When thou doest good do it because it is 
good, not because men esteem it ; when thou 
avoidest evil flee it because it is evil ? not 
because men speak against it ; be honest for 
the love of honesty, and thou shalt be uni- 
formly so : he that doeth it without principle 
is wavering. Say not unto thyself, Behold, 
truth breedeth hatred, and I will avoid it ; 
dissimulation raiseth friends, and I will follow 
it. Are not the enemies made by truth better 
than the friends obtained by flattery?" 

What can man bear about with him — what 
office, what array, what apparel— that shall 
beget such reverence as the soul he bears 
with him ? dr. dewey. 



January 3l« 



3' 



With men it is impossible, but not with God. — 
Mark x. 27. 

There is no heart beat in the day, 

Which bears a record of the smallest deed, 

But holds within its faith alway 

That which in doubt we vainly strive to read. 

One seed contains another seed, 

And that a third, and so for evermore ; 

And promise of as great a deed 

Lies folded in the deed that went before. 

LOWELL. 

T PLUCK an acorn from the greensward, 
* and hold it to my ear ; and this is what it 
says to me : " By and by the birds will come 
and nest in me. By and by I will furnish 
shade for the cattle. By and by I will pro- 
vide warmth for the home in the pleasant 
fire. By and by I will be shelter from the 
storm to those who have gone under the 
roof. By and by I will be the strong ribs of 
the great vessel, and the tempest will beat 
against me in vain, while I carry men across 
the Atlantic." Oh, foolish little acorn, wilt 
thou be all this ? Hark, and the acorn 
answers, " Yes ; God and I." 

LYMAN ABBOTT. 

Life is not a diamond, but a seed with 
possibilities of endless growth. 

J. R. MILLER. 



32 



THE PATH OF PEACE. 

It is hard to walk earth's toilsome way 

Ever while slow moons wane or slow in- 
crease, 

So hard to follow Duty day by day, 
Leading us to God's peace ! 

Lift up thy tired eyes ; no cloud is spread 
Betwixt thee and his heaven serene and 
pure ; 

He holds his hand above thy humble head, 
Thy happiness is sure. 

Then keep the courage of thy morning 
prime, 

And bravely bear the cross he lays on thee ; 
'Tis but a little space of troubled time 
In his eternity. 

Remember, only in this pathway lies 

Thy safety — once beyond its sheltering 
bound 

What choking mists, what bitter tempests 
rise 

Where never rest is found ! 

Hard may be Duty's hand, but lo, it leads 
Out into perfect joy, where pain shall 
cease ! 

God sees thy striving, and thy patience heeds, 
And thou shalt find his peace. 

CELIA THAXTER. 

From Youth's Companion. 



ffebruarg 2. 



33 



The heavens declare the glory of God, and 
the firmament showeth his handiwork. — Psalm 
xix. i. 

More and more stars ! and ever as I gaze 

Brighter and brighter seen ! 
Whence come they, Father ? Trace me out their ways 

Far in the deep serene. 

J. KEBLE. 

O God : O Good beyond compare ! 
If thus thy meaner works are fair, 
How glorious must the mansion be 
Where thy redeemed shall dwell with thee ! 

HEBER. 

T TE who has seen only the daylight knows 
* * nothing of that heaven of stars which 
all night long hang overhead their lamps of 
gold. When death has dusted off this body 
from me, who will dream for me the new 
powers I shall possess ? It were vain to try. 
Time shall reveal it all. 

THEODORE PARKER. 

There are preachers enough around us. 
But how many hear ? How true it is that 
till God speaks to the heart of man, man can- 
not understand the language of God which is 
uttered around him, over him, and beneath 
him. THOLUCK. 



34 



3Februat£ 3, 



But when thou doest alms, let not thy left 
hand know what thy right hand doeth : 

That thine alms may be in secret ; and thy 
Father, which seeth in secret, himself shall 
reward thee openly. — Matt. vi. 3, 4. 

We give thee but thine own, 

Whate'er the gift may be ; 
All that we have is thine alone, 

A trust, O Lord, from thee. 

w. w. HOW. 

Lord, lead the way the Saviour went, 

By lane and cell obscure, 
And let love's treasure still be spent, 

Like his, upon the poor. 

For thou hast placed us side by side 

In this wide world of ill ; 
And that thy followers may be tried, 

The poor are with, us still. 

W. CRO SWELL. 

/~\NE man, when he has done a service to 



another, is ready to set it down to his 
account as a favor conferred. Another is not 
ready to do this, but still in his own mind he 
thinks of the man as his debtor, and he knows 
what he has done. A third in a manner does 
not even know what he has done, but he is 
like a vine which has produced grapes, and 
seeks for nothing more after it has once pro- 
duced its proper fruit. 




MARCUS AURELIUS. 



Jfebruarg 4. 



35 



Do thou for me. — Psalm cix. 21. 

Just to let thy Father do 

What he will ; 
Just to know that he is true, 

And be still. 
Just to follow hour by hour 

As he leadeth ; 
Just to draw the moment's power 

As it needeth. 
Just to trust him, this is all ! 

Then the day will surely be 
Peaceful, whatsoe'er befall, 

Bright and blessed, calm and free. 

F. R. HAVER GAL. 

THE Psalmist does not say what he wanted 
God to do for him. He leaves it open. 
So this most restful prayer is left open for all 
perplexed hearts to appropriate according to 
their several necessities. And so we leave it 
open for God to fill up in his own way. 

There is sure to be a preface to this prayer. 
u Neither know we what to do." Perhaps 
we have been shrinking from being brought 
to this. Rather let us give thanks for it. It 
is the step done from the drifting wreck on 
to the ladder still hanging at the side. Will 
another step be down into the dark water ? 
Go on, a little lower still ; fear not ! The 
next is, " We know not what we should pray 
for." Now we have reached the lowest step. 
What next? " Do thou for me." This is 
the step into the captain's boat. 

F, R. HAVERGAL, 



3 6 



jfcbruan? 5. 



What doth the Lord require of thee, but to 
do justly, and to love mercy y and to walk humbly 
with thy God 7 — Micah vi. 8. 

T IE not at all, neither in a little thing nor 



^ in a great, neither in the substance nor in 
the circumstance, neither in word nor deed : 
that is, pretend not what is false, cover not 
what is true ; and let the measure of your 
affirmation or denial be the understanding of 
your contractor ; for he that deceives the 
buyer or the seller by speaking what is true 
in a sense not intended or understood by the 
other is a liar and a thief. For in bargains 
you are to avoid not only what is false, but 
that also which deceives. 



A man who is not upright in heart cannot 
be upright in action. 



It is time that a little more stress was laid 
on simple honesty. It is not every man who 
can be a great saint or a mighty preacher . . . 
but every man can be faithful in his work. 




JEREMY TAYLOR. 



M. W. R. 



J. F. CLARKE. 



JFebruarg 6. 



37 



it shall be given you. — Luke xi. 9. 

Pray in fortunate days, for life's most beautiful For- 
tune 

Kneels down before the Eternal's throne, and with 

hands interfolded 
Praises, thankful and moved, the only Giver of blessings. 

Longfellow. 

Tell him that his very longing is itself an answering 
cry ; 

That his prayer, " Come, gracious Allah!" is my 
answer, 

Here am I. 

PERSIAN LEGEND, 

T EARN to entwine with your prayers the 
^ small cares, the trifling sorrows, the little 
wants of daily life. Whatever affects you — ■ 
be it a changed look, an altered tone, an un- 
kind word, a wrong, a wound, a demand you 
cannot meet, a sorrow you cannot disclose — 
turn it into prayer, and send it up to God. Dis- 
closures you may not make to man you can 
make to the Lord. Men may be too little for 
your great matters ; God is not too great for 
your small ones. Only give yourself to prayer, 
whatever be the occasion that calls for it." 

Prayer is so mighty an instrument that 
no one ever thoroughly mastered all its keys. 
They sweep along the infinite scale of man's 
wants and God's goodness. 

HUGH MILLER, 



3* 



jFebruarg 7. 



Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch 
cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide hi the 
vine : no more can ye, except ye abide in me. — 
John xi. 4. 

Abide with me ! Fast falls the eventide. 
The darkness deepens — Lord, with me abide ! 
When other helpers fail, and comforts flee, 
Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me ! 

Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day ; 
Earth's joys grow dim, its glories pass away ; 
Change and decay in all around I see ; 
Oh, thou, who changest not, abide with me ! 

H. F. LYTE. 

ONLY, in all we say, think, do, fear, hope, 
enjoy, let us say : " Abide with us, 
Lord." We fear our own unsteadfastness : 
" Lord, abide with us." The foe is strong, 
and we, through our sins, weak: " Lord, 
abide with us," and be our strength. We are 
ever subject to change, and ebb and flow : 
"Abide with us, Lord," with whom "is no 
change." The pleasures of the world would 
lead us from thee : " Abide with us, Lord," 
and be thou our joy. The troubles of the 
world would shake our endurance : " Abide 
with us, Lord," and bear them in us as 
thou didst bear them for us. Thou art our 
refreshment in weariness ; thou our com- 
fort in trouble ; thou our refuge in temp- 
tation ; thou in death our life; thou in 
judgment our redeemer. 

E. B. PUSEY, D. D. 



3Febvuar£ 8. 



39 



He revealeth the deep and secret things : he 
knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light 
dwelleth with him. — Daniel ii. 22. 

Saviour, in thy mysterious presence kneeling, 
Fain would our souls feel all thy kindling love ; 

For we are weak, and need some deep revealing 
Of trust, and strength, and calmness from above. 

Lord, we have wandered forth through doubt and 
sorrow, 

And thou hast made each step an onward one ; 
And we will ever trust each unknown morrow : 
Thou wilt sustain us till its work is done. 

In the heart's depths a peace serene and holy 
Abides, and when pain seems to have its will, 

Or we despair, — oh, may that peace rise slowly, 
Stronger than agony, and we be still ! 

Now, Saviour, now, in thy dear presence kneeling, 
Our spirits yearn to feel thy kindling love ; 

Now make us strong, we need thy deep revealing 
Of trust, and strength, and calmness from above. 

S. JOHNSON. 



HERE is a gracious Providence over us ; 



1 never doubt that. The spirit of truth 
and of God is blowing around us like the wind, 
invisible, mysterious like the air. We cannot 
tell whence it comes or whither it goes. But 
it is coming and going evermore in all parts 
of the earth, in every human bosom. 




W. H. FURNESS. 



4Q jfebruarg 



Help us, O Lord our God j for we rest on 
thee, — 2 Chron. xiv. n. 

A thread of law runs through thy prayer 
Stronger than iron cables are, 
And Love and Longing toward her goal 
Are pilots sweet to guide the soul. 



OWEVER intense the stimulus which 



1 ambition or even conscience may give 
to the intellect and will, it is not to be com- 
pared with the might assumed by the facul- 
ties of their own accord when released from 
fear and care, and flung into the Almighty 
hand to be wielded at his will. There is no 
instrument so tremendous in this world as 
a human soul thus committed to what is 
diviner than itself. . . Be it the saintly 
woman or be it the God-fearing Puritan, 
"None mount so high as those who know 
not whither they go." 



There hard by runs down the stream of 
life, its waters never frozen, never dry, fed by 
perennial dews falling unseen from God. . . 
Kneel there and pray. God shall inspire thy 
heart with truth and love, and fill thy cup 
with never ending joy. 



D. A. WASSON. 




JAMES MARTINEAU. 



THEODORE PARKER. 



Jfebruarg t(X 4* 



The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit ; a 
broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt 
not despise, — Psalm li. 17. 

Duty's whole lesson thou hast learnt at last, 
Which in self-sacrifice begins and ends. 

By the rejection of thyself thou hast 

Regained the Infinite, whose life transcends 

All personality. lytton. 



O me this is the profoundest of all truths — 



1 that the whole of the life of God is the 
sacrifice of self. God is love : love is sacrifice, 
to give rather than receive— the blessedness 
of self-giving. If the life of God were not 
such it would be falsehood to say that God is 
love. . . All the life of God is a flow of this 
divine self-giving charity. 



A true perception of the Gospel is the 
entire forgetfulness of self : utter absence of 
any pretension, and the complete and entire 
refusal to accept the world's praise or judg- 



Forsake yourself, resign yourself, and you 
shall enjoy great inward peace. Give all for 
all. Ask for nothing, desire no return. . . 
You shall be free in heart, and darkness shall 




F. W. ROBERTSON. 



ment. 



GENERAL GORDON. 



not cover you. 



THOMAS A KEMPIS. 



42 



Jfebruar^ tl. 



Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the 
least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto 
me. — Matt. xxv. 40. 

Do the work that's nearest, 
Though it's dull at whiles, 

Helping when we meet them 
Lame dogs over stiles. 

CHARLES KINGSLEY. 

Not in the burden of the day, 
Nor in the heat of deadly strife, 

But in the trifles by the way, 
And in the little things of life, 

I would, dear Master, learn of thee, 

And use the talents lent to me. 

GOVER KETTLEWELL. 

\ATE are quick to envy others the posses- 
* * sion of gifts. We forget that God's 
plan is unfolded by the use of such abilities 
as he has given, and that he alone knows the 
secret of fitting each influence into its place. 
The helpful souls who are most lovingly re- 
membered and the longest missed are those 
who have been mindful of small opportunities. 

New York Observer. 

How sweet and wholesome are the pleas- 
ures that go into small room — the humble, 
simple, accustomed sights and sounds that 
bring the soul at once into the open air ! 

DORA GREENWELL. 



Jfebruavg 12. 



43 



For as the heavens are higher tha?i the earth, 
so are my ways higher than your ways, and my. 
thoughts than your thoughts. — Isaiah Iv. 9. 

. . . Still there lies 
An outer distance when the first is hailed, 
And still forever yawns before our eyes 
An utmost — that is veiled. 

JEAN INGELOW. 

'IpHE gulf between aspiration and achieve- 
* ment is often so deep and wide that it 
swallows up one's courage and hope. Between 
the thing that was planned and the thing that 
is done there is a distance which seems 
immeasurable. If one suffers himself to 
brood over this chasm between the ideal and 
the real, he loses the power of effective work ; 
the consciousness of his own weakness, the 
sense of the imperfection of whatever he 
does, cuts into his soul and destroys his 
power. To achieve we must become blind, 
in a certain sense, to our own defects. We 
must recognize the lines along which we 
work most naturally, and we must know the 
tools with which we work most effectively. 

Ch ristia n U nio n . 



The sea is so great, and my boat is so 
small ! phillips brooks. 



44 



jfebruarg 13* 



All tilings are possible to him that believeth. — 
Mark ix. 23. 

God bless the Present ! It is All ! 

It has been Future, and it shall be Past. 
Awake and live ! Thy strength recall, 

And in one trinity unite them fast. 

Action and Life — lo ! here the key 

Of all on earth that seemeth dark and wrong ; 

Win this — and with it freely ye 

May enter that bright realm for which ye long. 

Then all these bitter questionings 

Shall with a full and blessed answer meet. 

Past worlds, whereof the Poet sings, 

Shall be the earth beneath his snow-white feet. 

LOWELL. 

More is won than e'er was lost. Inherit ! 



HE common opportunity comes, as the 



1 divinest opportunity in the whole history 
of the world came, cradled in obscurity. . . 
The man or woman of true wisdom knows 
that there is nothing in all this world which 
has not noble possibilities in it, and that 
appearances count for nothing when quality 
is concerned. Christian Union. 



JEAX INGELOW. 




JFebruare 14, 



45 



Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 
— James iv. 7. 

For we have not a high priest who cannot be 
touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but 
was in all points tempted like as we are, yet 
without sin. — Heb. iv. 15. 

\T0 one can ask honestly or hopefully to 
^ be delivered from temptation unless he 
has himself honestly and firmly determined 
to do the best he can to keep out of it. 

RUSKIN. 

" If it is a small sacrifice to discontinue 
the use of wine, do it for the sake of others ; 
if it is a great sacrifice, do it for your own 
sake." 

" The fact that a great pressure is brought 
to bear to induce one to violate his sense of 
right in no sense releases him from the 
responsibility of wrongdoing." 

"At no time of your life can you be so 
sure of the help of the suffering but victorious 
Son of God as when you are tempted. And 
each one ought to know his peculiar tempta- 
tion and to fight his fight, and with the help 
of God gain the victory." 



46 



jfebruarg 15. 



He giveth grace unto the lowly. — Prov. iii. 
34- 



I HAVE been honored and obey'd, 

I have met scorn and slight ; 
And my heart loves earth's sober shade 

More than her laughing light. 
For what is rule but a sad weight 

Of duty, and a snare ? 
What meanness, — but with happier fate 

The Saviour's cross to share ? 



EVER be ashamed of thy birth, or thy par- 



1 ^ ents, or thy trade, or thy present employ- 
ment, for the meanness or poverty of any of 
them ; and when there is an occasion to 
speak of them, such an occasion as would 
invite you to speak of anything that pleases 
you, omit it not, but speak as readily and in- 
differently of thy meanness as of thy great- 
ness. JEREMY TAYLOR. 

It requires ability to make what we seem 
agree with what we are, and humility to feel 
we are no great things. amiel. 



NEWMAN. 




A man is just as great as he is in the sight 
of God — no greater. 

CANON FARRAR. 



3Februat£ 16. 



47 



Walk humbly with thy God. — Micah, vi. 8. 

When a philanthropist said pompously, 

" With your great gifts you ought 

To work for the great world, not spend yourself 

On common labors like a common man " — 

He answered him, " The world is in God's hands. 

This part he gives to me : for which my past, 

Built up on loves inherited, hath made 

Me fittest. Neither will he let me think 

Primeval, godlike work too low to need 

For its perfection manhood's noblest powers 

And deepest knowledge, far beyond my gifts. 

And if I leave the thing that lieth next 

To go and do the thing that is afar, 

I take the very strength out of my deed, 

Seeking the needy not for pure need's sake." 



\ A 7E can hardly learn humility and tender- 
* * ness enough except by suffering. 

GEORGE ELIOT. 

Secure a good name to thyself by living 
virtuously and humbly ; but let this good name 
be nursed abroad, and never be brought home 
to look upon it ; let others use it for their own 
advantage ; let them speak of it if they 
please ; but do not thou use it at all but as an 
instrument to do God glory, and thy neigh- 
bor more advantage. Let thy face, like 
Moses', shine to others ? but make no looking- 
glass for thyself. jeremy taylor. 



GEO. MACDONALD. 




4§ 



3februar£ 17. 



Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his 
righteousness j and all these things shall be 
added unto you. — Matt. vi. 33. 

IS EEP religion in its place, and it will take 



1 * you straight through life, and straight to 
your Father in heaven when life is over. 
But if you do not put it in its place you 
may just as well have nothing to do with it. 
Religion out of its place in a human life 
is the most miserable thing in the world. 
There is nothing that requires so much to 
be kept in its place as religion, and its place 
is. what? Second? Third? "First!" Boys, 
carry that home with you to-day — first 
the kingdom of God ! Make it so that it 
will be natural to you to think about that the 
very first thing. drummond. 

The godless lover of gain and the gainless 
lover of God are fanatics both taking hold of 
the opposite ends of the same falsehood. 
And the truth which suffices to rebuke them 
both is this : that the kingdom of God is not 
a business set up in rivalry with worldly 
business, but a divine law regulating, and a 
divine temper pervading, the pursuits of 
worldly business. james martineau. 




49 



Lo y 1 am with you a /way, even unto the end 
of the world. — Matt xxviii. 20. 

LO, I am with you alway," He said. No 
soul is ever alone to whom this pre- 
cious promise is verified, but, oh, the lone- 
liness of every spirit that does not know the 
companionship of the Master. I know no 
truth more saddening than that which sooner 
or later comes to all who labor or suffer, that 
so far as earthly fellowship is concerned, every 
human spirit is destined to pass through the 
world in a certain sense alone. . . Not even 
in the closest intimacy known to human life — 
not even in the bond of holy wedlock is the 
barrier of spiritual individuality removed. 
They twain, said the Master, shall be one 
flesh ; one spirit they are not! ... It is a 
solemn truth that every man must live his 
inner life alone, and the sense of isolation 
is sometimes unspeakably oppressive. The 
things of the spirit knoweth no man but the 
spirit that dwelleth in him. In those hours 
and days of longing for sympathetic compan- 
ionship our dearest friends fail us, because 
they cannot reach us, nor can we reach them. 
Ah, it is then that we need a friend who shall 
be human and yet more than human. Such 
a friend, and only one, we have — a Man, and 
yet a Free Spirit, unseen, yet always near : 
who knows all that is in us, and yet loves us ; 
who once died to save us, and now lives to 
strengthen us. samuel smith Harris, 



3Februar£ 19. 



Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall 
see God. — Matt. v. 8. 

My strength is the strength of ten, 
Because my heart is pure. 

TENNYSON. 

> ^T v O commune with God there is need of no 
* subtle thought, no foreign tongue, no 
newest philosophy. "The pure in heart 
shall see" him. j. martienau. 

Oh that the age could learn afresh the 
grandeur, the beauty, the nobleness, the 
blessedness of purity. This grace includes 
all others and measures all others. More 
than all things else the world about us needs 
to be taught the meaning of Christian 
knighthood, the beauty of holiness. 

Let men learn the old, old, truth that a 
gentleman is always a pure-minded and a 
pure-hearted man. 

Let our maidens learn that of all culture 
and of all adornment the loveliest and best 
is heart culture in holiness. 

Show me a woman who has this hope, 
indeed, and I will show you a Madonna soul 
on which the beatific and beautifying light 
has shone and is still shining. 

SAMUEL SMITH HARRIS. 



JFebruarg 20. 



Forgetting those things which are behind, and 
reaching forth unto those things which are 
before, I press toward the mark. — Phil. iii. 



" The oak tree's boughs once touched the grass, 
But every year they grew 
A little farther from the ground, 
And nearer to the blue." 



HE living soul is ever growing in the life 



It is not said that the character will de- 
velop in all its fullness in this life. That 
were a time too short for an evolution so 
magnificent. In this world only the cornless 
ear is seen ; sometimes only the small yet 
still prophetic blade. The sneer at the godly 
man for his imperfections is ill judged. A 
blade is a small thing. At first it grows very 
near the earth. It is often soiled and crushed 
and down-trodden. But it is a living thing. 
The great dead stone beside it is more im- 
posing ; only it will never be anything else 
than a stone. But this small blade—// doth 
not yet appear what it shall be. 



13, J 4. 




DR. LIDDON. 



PRUMMONP, 



Jfebruarg 21. 



Hath he given us any gifts? — 2 Sam. xix. 42. 
And every man shall receive Jus own rezvard 
according to his own labor. — 1 Cor. iii. 8, 

'Tis God gives skill, 

But not without men's hands ; 

He could not make 

Antonio Stradivari's violins 

Without Antonio. george eliot. 

^HRIST bids us " behold the fowls of the 
air," and says that " God feedeth them." 
Do they, then, stay at home, and do nothing, 
expecting crumbs of manna to drop from rich 
tables in the skies ? Are they found, empty 
of all appetency, regardless of the changing 
year, and hanging ever upon miracles ? 
What eager industry flutters in the spring 
around the plantation, gathering the bits and 
brakes scattered for them by winter's storm ! 
W r hat busy preparation, at autumn's first 
chill wind, wheels and musters overhead for 
the long flight over southern seas, the swift 
cheering on the slow, and the young wing 
supporting the old ! And is not this truly 
called the feeding of the creatures by their 
Maker? Yes; only, "that which he giveth 
them, they gather" by putting his skill within 
them, as well as spreading his affluence with- 
out* JAMES MARTINEATJ. 



JFebruarg 22, 



55 



I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the 7?iercies 
of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacri- 
fice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your 
reasonable service. — Rom. xii. i. 

" My life is not my own, but Christ's, who gave it, 
And he bestows it upon all the race ; 

I lose it for his sake, and thus I save it ; 

I hold it close, but only to expend it ; 

Accept it, Lord, for others, through thy grace." 



" 'Tis not thy work the Master needs, but thee, 
The obedient spirit, the believing heart/' 



HE altar stands in the foreground of every 



1 life, and can be passed by only at the 
cost of all that is noblest and best. . . An- 
ciently a man brought a lamb and presented 
it to God; laid it on the altar, to be consumed 
by God's fire. In like manner we are to 
present our bodies. The first thing is not to 
be a worker, a preacher, a saver of souls : the 
very first thing in a Christian life is to present 
one's self to God, to lay one's self on the 
altar. It is easier to talk and work for Christ 
than to give ourselves to him. It is easier 
to offer God a few activities than to give him 
a heart. j. r. miller. 




54 



jfebruarg 23* 



I will be with him in trouble. — Psalm 
xix. 15. 

We make the least ado o'er greatest troubles; 

Our very anguish doth our anguish drown : 
The sea forms just a few faint bubbles 

Of stifled breathing when a ship goes down. 

ALICE CARY. 

I falter where I firmly trod, 

And falling with my weight of cares 
Upon the great world's altar stairs 

That slope through darkness up to God. 

TENNYSON. 

TN thy silent wishing, thy voiceless, un- 
A uttered prayer, let the desire be not 
cherished that afflictions may not visit thee, 
for well has it been said, " Such prayers never 
seem to have wings." I am willing to be 
purified through sorrow, and to accept it 
meekly as a blessing. I see that all the 
clouds are angels' faces, and their voices 
speak harmoniously of the everlasting chime. 

L. M. CHILD. 

For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, 
and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 

Many an inherited sorrow that has marred 
a life has been breathed into no human 
ear. george eliot. 



jfebruarg 24, 



55 



He hath annointed me to preach the Gospel to 
the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken- 
hearted, to preach delivera?ice to the captives, and 
recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty 
them that are bruised. — Luke iv. 18. 

Ask God to give thee skill 

In comfort's art, 
That thou mayst consecrated be 

And set apart 
Unto a life of sympathy ; 
For heavy is the weight of ill 

In every heart ; 
And comforters are needed much 
Of Christ-like touch. A . E. HAMILTON. 

EACH one of us who knows the love of 
Christ is ordained to be as Christ to 
others ; that is, to be the messenger to carry 
to them the gift of Christ's grace and help, 
and to show to them the spirit of Christ, the 
patience, gentleness, thoughtfulness, love, 
and yearning of Christ. We are taught to 
say, "Christ liveth in me." If this be true 
Christ would love others through us, and our 
touch must be to others as the very touch of 
Christ himself. Every Christian ought to be, 
in his human measure, a new incarnation of 
the Christ, so that people shall say: " He 
interprets Christ to me. He comforts me in 
my sorrows as Christ himself would do if he 
were to come and sit down beside me. He 
is hopeful and patient, as Christ would be 
if he were to return and take me as his 
disciple." j. r. miller. 



56 



jfebruarg 25, 



For none of us liveth to himself, and no man 
dieth to himself. — Rom. xiv. 7. 

Not to ourselves are we living, 

Not to ourselves do we die ; 
Freely receiving as giving, 

Soul after soul marches by — 
Parts of one mighty procession 

Stretching from Eden's first dawn 
On through large curves of progression, 

Till in the future it's gone. 
Gone from earth's ken, past heat, past breath, 
Into the life that is miscalled death. 

W. M. L. JAY. 

She never found fault with you, never implied 
Your wrong by her right ; and yet men at her side 

Grew nobler, girls purer. 
None knelt at her feet, confessed lovers in thrall ; 
They knelt more to God than they used — that was all. 

E. B. BROWNING. 

IF a teacher have an opinion which he wishes 
to conceal his pupils will become as fully 
indoctrinated into that as into any which he 
publishes. If you pour water into a vessel 
twisted into coils and angles, it is vain to say, 
I will pour it into this or that — it will find its 
own level in all. Men feel and act the conse- 
quences of your doctrine without being able 
to show how they follow. Show us an arc of 
the curve, and a good mathematician will find 
out the whole figure. . . No man can bury 
his meanings so deep in his book but time and 
like-minded men will find them. 

EMERSON. 



Jfebruarg 26. 



57 



Thine own and thy father s friend forsake 
not. — Prov. xxvii. 10. 

HOW careful one ought to be to be kind 
and thoughtful of one's old friends. It 
is so soon too late to be good to them, and 
then one is always so grieved. 

SARAH ORNE JEWETT. 

Your friend's fault is his prison. Your 
best meant efforts to open the door for his 
escape will probably be obstructed by the 
fact that you are living in another prison 
yourself. ethelwyn wetherald, 

In the matter of friendship I have observed 
that disappointment arises chiefly, not from 
liking our friends too well, or thinking of 
them too highly, but rather from an over- 
estimate of their liking for and opinion of us; 
and that if we guard ourselves with sufficient 
scrupulousness of care from error in that 
direction, and can be content and even happy 
to give more affection than we receive, we 
may manage to go through life with consist- 
ency and constancy, unembittered by that 
misanthropy which springs from revulsions 
of feeling. charlotte bronte. 

The true test of friendship is to be able to 
sit or walk with a friend for an hour in per- 
fect silence without wearying of one's com- 
pany. DINAH MARIA MULOCK. 



58 



Judge not, and ye shall not be judged. — Luke 
vi. 37. 

Heaven is above all yet. 

There is a Judge that no king can corrupt. 

SHAKSPERE 

T MIGHT appeal to you on the ground of 
* justice, for no man can rightly judge an- 
other. I might appeal to you on the ground 
of our own need of mercy, for who are we 
that we should undertake to judge our breth- 
ren ? But I appeal to-day simply on the 
ground of mercy. Forbear to judge ! Ye 
just and gentle-minded men, be just and 
gentle even in your thoughts ! Ye sensi- 
tive and gentle women, who would not tread 
upon a beetle in your garden walk, be merci- 
ful, be pitiful in judgment ; nay, forbear to 
judge ! Perhaps we have all learned some- 
thing of the rapture of compassion, the 
luxury of doing good. Let us strive to learn 
the peace of the unjudging temper. 

SAMUEL SMITH HARRIS. 

Only the balances of God are perfect. 

CANON FARRAR. 

Such as everyone is inwardly, so he 
judgeth outwardly. thomas a kempis. 



Jfebruarg 28. 



59 



But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner 
of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, 
patience. — 2 Timothy iii. 10. 

A A /E must look for the true face of our 
* * religion in the face of those who have 
best represented it. dean Stanley. 

The final test of religion at that great day 
is not religiousness, but love ; not what I 
have done, not what I have believed, not what 
I have achieved, but how I have discharged 
the common charities of life. drummond. 

It is easy enough to make too much of the 
outward and visible side of religion. We 
may think so much of the visible portion of 
the Church as to forget that larger invisible 
portion of it which is beyond the veil. 

DR. LIDDON. 

As the primeval rock lies at the bottom of 
the sea and appears at the top of the loftiest 
mountains, so in a finished character religion 
underlies all and crowns all. 

THEODORE PARKER. 



Religion is the best armor in the world, 
but the worst cloak. bunyan. 



6o 



JFebruarg 29. 



A new spirit will I put within you, — 
Ezekiel xxxvi. 26. 

F)AUL in the midst of his frenzy was 



1 healed, was made, for a wolf, a shepherd ; 
for a blasphemer, a confessor of the faith ; 
for a persecutor, an apostle. Himself re- 
made, he undid what he had done, preached 
the faith which he had wasted, that it 
might be seen that the whole was of God, 
requiting evil for good, making of the evil 
good. 



If you wish to know whether you are a 
Christian inquire of yourself whether, in and 
for the love of God, you seek to make happy 
those about you by smiles and pleasant 
sayings. Are you a comfortable person 
to live with ? Are you pleasant to have 
about ? 



Wear your velvet within ; show your- 
selves amiable to those, above all, who live 
with you. 




DR. PUSEY. 



GAIL HAMILTON. 



JOSEPH JOUBERT. 



/Ifcarcb l. 



61 



HOPE SONG, 
i 

" Oh, birds from out the east, oh, birds from 

out the west, 
Have you found the happy city in all your 

weary quest ? 
Tell me, tell me, from earth's wandering may 

the heart find glad surcease? 
Can ye show me, as an earnest, any olive 

branch of peace ? 

2 

" There sleepeth no such city within the wide 

world's bound, 
Nor hath the dreaming fancy yet its blissful 

portals found. 
For we are children crying upon a mother's 

breast, 

For life and peace and blessedness, and for 
eternal rest. 

3 

" I am weary of life's troubles, of its sin and 

toil and care, 
I am faithless, crushing in my heart so many 

a fruitless prayer. 
Oh, birds from out the east, oh, birds from 

out the west, 
Can ye tell me of that city the name of which 

is Rest ? 



62 



/Ifcarcb t. 



4 

"Bless God, I hear a still, small voice above 

life's clamorous din. 
Saying, Faint not, oh, weary one, thou yet 

mayst enter in. 
That city is prepared for those who well do 

win the fight, 
Who tread the wine press till its blood hath 

washed their garments white. 

5 

"Within it is no darkness, nor any baleful 
flower 

Shall there oppress thy weeping eyes with 
stupefying power. 

It lieth calm within the light of God's peace- 
giving breast, 

Its walls are called Salvation, the city's name 
is Rest." 

In Eastern myth each man, when the 
hour struck, took his shroud and went forth 
to the Orient. Through fertile fields or 
deserts drear he never looked behind him ; 
straight onward moving into the land of the 
day dawn, till the angels of destiny pointed 
out a green spot where he might lie down 
and be at rest. Closing our eyes to earth we 
see, in ecstatic vision, the city of Peace. 

E. P. TENNEY, 



dbarcb 2. 



63 



And this is the victory that over co met h the 
world, even our faith. — 1 John v. 4. 

Look full into thy spirit's self, 

The world of mystery scan ! 
What if thy way to faith in God 

Should lie through faith in man ! 

BRIGHT. 

Know well, my soul, God's hand controls 

Whate'er thou fearest. 
Nothing before, nothing behind. 

The steps of Faith 
Fall on the seeming void, and find 

The rock beneath. 



HAT avails it if I have shaken the 



y y viper from my hand if I have no 
miraculous antidote against the venom which 
has mingled with my life blood, and clogged 
the pulse of my heart ! But the antidote of 
Paul, even faith, may it not be mine if I duly 
seek it ? mrs. jameson. 

As love is the life of faith, so with the in- 
crease of love faith increases. Even from 
man toward man faith and love grow to- 
gether. The more we love the more we un- 
derstand and the more we trust one another. 



Christ honors the draft of a working 



WHITTIER. 




DR. PUSEY. 



faith. 



BEECHER. 



64 



/Ifoarcb 3* 



For this God is our God forever and ever : 
he will be our guide even unto death, — Psalm 
xlviii. 14. 

" He who cares for the lily, 

And heeds the sparrow's fall, 
Shall tenderly lead his loving child, 

For he made and lovethall. 
And so, when wearied and baffled, 

And I know not which way to go, 
I know that he can guide me, 

And 'tis all that I need to know." 



Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom ; 

Lead thou me on ! 
The night is dark, and I am far from home ; 

Lead thou me on ! 
Keep thou my feet ; I do not ask to see 
The distant scene — one step enough for me ! 

So long thy power hath blest me, sure it still 

Will lead me on, 
O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till 

The night is gone ; 
And with the morn those angel faces smile, 
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile. 

NEWMAN. 



A LL virtue consists in having a willing 
^ heart ; God will lead you as if by the 
hand, if only you do not doubt, and are filled 
with love for him rather than fear for your- 
self. FENELON. 



dbarcb 4. 



65 



I call to remembrance my song in the night j 
I coni7nune with mine own heart. — Psalm 
lxxvii. 6. 

By all means use sometimes to be alone — 
Salute thyself ! See what thy soul doth wear ! 

HERBERT. 

A yf EDITATION is at once the greatest aid 
to faithfulness and its greatest joy, 
constantly renewing the cause of it ; and 
through meditation faithfulness takes posses- 
sion of its treasures. Meditation is the con- 
centration of all our thoughts and all our 
powers on one point. It renders all verities 
present at once, and all their consequences 
plain. Meditate, says the Master to the dis- 
ciples, and evil will seem less possible and 
good more easy. mme. swetchine. 

Solitude sometimes is best society. 

MILTON. 

Meditation illuminates, it warms, it in- 
vigorates ; and by doing this it gives that 
inward proof of its own reality which has 
been most highly prized by the most devoted 
servants of God. dr. liddon. 



66 



jflftarcb 5* 



I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto 
you these things in the churches. — Rev. xxii. 
16. 

"Oh ! where are kings and empires now 
Of old that went and came ? 
But, Lord, thy Church is praying yet, 
A thousand years the same." 

LET not our hearts be troubled. The 
Church of Christ was not built on the 
shifting sand, but founded deep in the living 
rock. Century after century the rain has 
descended and the floods risen, and the winds 
blown and beaten upon it. Century after 
century the tide of assaulting criticism has 
ebbed, to rush up again with fiercer surges 
and more apparently resistless force. But 
look again. The rock is there, unshaken 
still. It is but the blustering waves which 
have been shattered into spray, and dashed 
into a briny mist upon the winds. 

CANON FARRAR. 

Heed not the fastidious critic who tells 
you that the world has outgrown the Church 
— that the living voice of trust and aspiration 
shall soon have no response from* sorrowing 
and struggling men. Depend upon it, his is 
the humor of the hour ; and you who keep to 
the old, reverent ways are taking sides with 
the perpetuity of our humanity. Fear not 
that you have here to do with any perishable 

WOrk. JAMES MARTINEAU. 



dfoarcb 6. 



67 



There are diversities of gifts, but the same 
Spirit. And there are differences of adminis- 
trations, but the same Lord. — 1 Cor. xii. 4, 5. 

Man's road 
Is one, men's times of travel many. 

BROWNING. 

A RE not all true men that live or that ever 



lived soldiers of the same army, enlisted 
under Heaven's captaincy, to do battle 
against the same enemy— the empire of Dark- 
ness and Wrong ? Why should we misknow 
one another, fight not against the enemy, but 
against ourselves, from mere difference of 
uniform ? carlyle. 

Without doubt the best missionary is not 
the one who hates idolatry most, but the one 
who is most ready to recognize the good that 
may lurk within it. Men will never be 
brought together by emphasizing their dif- 
ferences, but by adding the knowledge of 
one to that of the other. The truth never 
comes by argument, but by each party show- 
ing what he knows, and comparing the 

results. T, T. HUNGER. 




68 



/Ifcarcb 7. 



They go from strength to strength. — Psalm 
Ixxxiv. 7. 

We rise by the things that are under feet, 

By what we have mastered of good and gain, 
By the pride disposed and the passion slain, 

And the vanquished ills that we hourly meet. 

J. G. HOLLAND. 

Block by block, with sore and sharp endeavor, 
Lifelong we build these human natures up 
Into a temple fit for freedom's shrine. 

BAYARD TAYLOR. 

T IFE is a building. It rises slowly, day 
. by day, through the years. Every new 
lesson we learn lays a block on the edifice 
which is rising silently within us. Every 
experience, every touch of another life on 
ours, every influence that impresses us, every 
book we read, every conversation we have, 
every act of our commonest days, adds some- 
thing to the invisible building. 

J. R. MILLER. 

Not what others think for us, but what we 
are able to think for ourselves is the true life 
of our life. dean Stanley. 

Many build as cathedrals were built : the 
part nearest the ground finished, but that 
part which soars toward heaven, the turrets 
and spires, forever incomplete. beecher. 



Aatxb 8. 



69 



He hath put down the mighty from their 
seats, and exalted the?n of low degree. — Luke 
i. 52. 

Brothers all ! 
Proprietors eternal of thy love ! 

YOUNG. 

IF we miss the lesson which, by his words 
and his life, Christ would teach us, we 
must be blind indeed. It is not only the 
lesson of love, it is not even the lesson that 
he loved as man had never loved before ; 
but it is that he loved those whom none had 
ever loved before. . . Everywhere and always 
he saw what the world never sees — the soul 
of goodness in things evil. The way of the 
world is the very opposite. . . They know 
nothing of the sun but its spots. . . Does a 
good man commit one fault ? They do their 
best to make him known forever by nothing 
but that fault. . . Oh, world, such is thy Sav- 
iour, and, oh, world, such art thou ! 

CANON FARRAR. 

And then when I reflect that some of these 
poor people would have been nobler ladies 
and gentlemen than all but two or three I 
know if they had only had the opportunity, 
there is a reaction toward the poor, some- 
thing like a feeling of favor because they have 
not had fair play. 

GEO. MACDONALD. 



70 



Aatcb 0* 



And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and 
said, Blessed be ye poor : for yours is the king- 
do 7n of God. — Luke vi. 20. 

It would be hard with thee if heaven were shut 
To such as have not learning; ! Nay, nay, nay, 
He condescends to them of low estate ; 
To such as are despised he cometh down, 
Stands at the door and knocks. 

JEAN INGELOW. 

T THIXK sometimes that the world must 
* have been especially created for the poor, 
and that particular allowances will be made 
for the rich because they are born into such dis- 
advantages, and with their wickednesses and 
their miseries, their love of spiritual dirt and 
meanness, subserve the highest growth and 
emancipation of the poor, that they may 
inherit both the earth and the kingdom of 
heaven. geo. macdonald. 

There was no bitterness in her poverty : 
she met, looked at it, often even laughed at 
it, for it bound all the family together hand 
in hand ; it taught endurance, self-depend- 
ence, and, best of all lessons, self-renunciation. 

DINAH MARIA MULOCK. 



/Ifcarcb 10, 



71 



Unto one he gave five talents, to another two, 
and to another one; so every man according 
to his several ability. — Matt. xxv. 15. 

No stream from its source 

Flows seaward, how lonely soever its course, 

But some land is gladdened ! No star ever rose 

And set, without influence somewhere ! Who knows 

What earth needs from earth's lowest creature ? No life 

Can be pure in its purpose and strong in its strife, 

And all life not be purer and stronger thereby. 

OWEN MEREDITH. 

"T CANNOT be of any use," says one. "I 
* cannot talk in meetings. I cannot pray 
in public. I have no gift for visiting the 
sick. There is nothing I can do for Christ." 

Well, if Christian service were all talking, 
and praying in meetings, and visiting the 
sick, it would be discouraging to such talent- 
less people. But are our tongues the only 
faculties we can use for Christ? There are 
ways in which even silent people can belong 
to God and be a blessing in the world. A 
star does not talk, but its calm, steady beam 
shines down continually out of the sky, and is 
a benediction to many. . . Be like a star in 
your peaceful shining, and many will thank 
God for your life. j. r. miller. 



?2 



/Iftarcb It, 



Quit you like men, be strong. — i Cor. xvi. 13. 

TN becoming Christians let us not cease to 
be men ! Nay, we cannot be Christians 
unless we are men first. 

THEODORE PARKER. 

What we want is character, not stage vest- 
ments. LYMAN ABBOTT. 

The great difference between men, the 
feeble and the powerful, ... is energy and 
invincible determination, a purpose once fixed, 
and then death cr victory. That quality will 
do anything that can be done in this world ; 
and no talents, no circumstances, no oppor- 
tunities will make a two-legged creature a 
man without it. sir t. fowell buxton. 

Talents are best nurtured in solitude ; 
character is best formed in the stormy 
billows of the world. goethe. 

Happiness is not the end of life ; character 

is. BEECHER. 

Reputation is what men and women 
think of us; character is what God and 
angels know of us. thomas paine. 



/Ifcarcb 12. 



73 



The spirit within me constraineth vie. — Job 
xxxii. 18. 

But is it what we love, or how we love, 
That makes true good ? 

GEORGE ELIOT. 

Be noble ! and the nobleness that lies 
In other men, sleeping, but never dead, 
Will rise in majesty to meet thine own. 

LOWELL. 

HE only is great of heart who floods the 
* A world with a great affection. He only is 
great of mind who stirs the world with great 
thoughts. He only is great of will who does 
something to shape the world to a great 
career. And he is greatest who does the 
most of all these things, and does them 

best. ROSWELL D. HITCHCOCK. 

To think truth is the worship of the head ; 
to do noble works of usefulness and charity, 
the worship of the will ; to feel love and 
trust in man and God is the glad worship of 
the heart. Theodore parker. 

Individuals die ! but the amount of 
truth they have taught, and the sum of 
good they have done, dies not with them. 

MAZZINI. 



74 



/flbarcb 13. 



In that he himself hath suffered, being 
tempted, he is able to succor them that are 
tempted. — Heb. ii. 18. 

When the fight begins within himself 

A man's worth something ! browning. 

'Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus, 
Another thing to fall. shakspere. 

^THE great thing which a young man needs 
in a crisis of temptation is to declare 
for the right quickly. Leave no time for 
temptation to accumulate. . . It often re- 
quires a great deal of character to do that : 
not only a religious principle, but a strong- 
character back of that. 

AUSTIN PHELPS. 

Let not a man trust his victory over his 
nature too far ; for nature will lie buried 
a great time, and yet revive upon temptation. 

BACON. 

In its naked deformity evil does not attract; 
its shocks, alarms, disgusts us. The most 
terrible temptation is that which solicits us to 
abandon the high quest of the distant and 
divine in order to enjoy at once the limited, 
the earthly, the partial. 

SAMUEL SMITH HARRIS. 



/IRarcb 14. 



75 



Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and 
honor the face of the old man. — Lev. xix. 32. 



So we love with no less loving 

Hair that turns to gray, 
Or a step less lightly moving 

In life's autumn day. 
And if thought, still brooding, lingers 

O'er each bygone thing, 
'Tis because old autumn's fingers 

Paint in hues of spring. 



S life draws toward its close God dulls 



rx our eyes and ears and all our senses, 
that, being thus shut out from the outer 
world, our minds may the more retire from 
the world, withdraw into their own sanctuary, 
and there be occupied with him, and pre- 
pare to meet him. Be this method of his 
providence a guide to us ! Keep the rein 
over your own minds ; control them ; master 
them ; check them, for the very sake of keep- 
ing them in check ; so shall you the better 
have them in your power, in your prayers 
too. DR. PUSEY. 

Age rots away the gold we are set in, but 
the adamantine soul lives on, radiant every 
way in the light streaming down from God. 

THEODORE PARKER. 



GEO. MACDONALD. 




70 



/Ilbarcb 15, 



And this is the promise that he hath promised 
us, even eternal life. — i John ii. 25. 

I thank thee for these glimpses of the clime 
That lies beyond the boundaries of sense, 

Where I shall wash away the stains of time 
In floods of recompense — 

Where, when this body sleeps to wake no more, 
My soul shall rise to everlasting dreams, 

And find unreal all it saw before, 
And real all that seems. 

J. G. HOLLAND. 

Thou canst not 
All die — there is what must survive. 

BYRON. 

THAT for which we were made is im- 
mortality ; and our journey is rough, 
strait, sharp, burdensome, with many tears. 
Our journey is not to the grave, /am not 
growing into old age to be blind, and to be 
deaf, and to be rheumatic, and to shrink a 
miserable cripple into the corner, shaking and 
tottering, and forgetting all that I ever knew. 
The best part of me is untouched. I sit 
enshrined within the me. The soul, the 
reason, the moral sense, the power to think, 
the power to will, the power to love, the 
power to admire purity and to reach out after 
it — that is not touched by time, though its 
instrument and means of outer demonstration 
be corroded and failing. No physical weak- 
ness touches the soul. beecher. 



/Iftarcb \6. 



77 



Let thine eyes look right on> and let thine eye- 
lids look straight before thee. Turn not to the 
right hand nor to the left. — Pro v. iv. 25, 27. 

" Every hour that fleets so slowly 
Has its task to do or bear ; 
Luminous the crown, and holy, 
If thou set each gem with care/' 

r\ LORD, teach me to know my need of 
help from thee, and seek after it ; to 
find my place and keep it ; know my duty 
and do it. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYER OF JOHN WALLACE. 

To be content in a crisis with the single 
thought of duty is one of the grandest 
things in history. Yet a child can do it. 
God never disappoints that trust. When a 
young man throws himself headlong into the 
sea of temptation, with only the one spar of 
duty to lay hold of, God is there to uplift and 
bear him over the billows. In grasping duty 
he grasps a living and almighty hand. 

AUSTIN PHELPS. 



Let us stand by our duty fearlessly and 
effectively, Abraham Lincoln. 



78 



jfaarcb 17. 



Trust in the Lord and do good; so shalt thou 
dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. — 
Psalm xxxvii. 3. 

Cast all your care on God ! That anchor holds ! 



Build a little fence of trust 

Around to-day ; 
Fill the space with loving work, 

And therein stay. 
Look not through the sheltering bars 

Upon to-morrow ; 
God will help thee bear what comes 

Of joy or sorrow. 

MARY FRANCES BUTTS. 



HOU alone knowest what is good for me ; 



1 thou alone art Lord of all ; do therefore 
what seemeth to thee best. Give to me or 
take from me ; conform my will to thine ; 
and grant that with humble and perfect sub- 
mission and in holy confidence I may be dis- 
posed to receive the orders of thy eternal 
providence, and may equally adore every dis- 
pensation which shall come to me from thy 
hand. pascal. 

Be sure if you do your very best in that 
which is laid upon you daily you will not be 
left without help when some mightier occa- 
sion arises. jean nicolas grou. 



TENNYSON. 




.fflbarcb IS, 



79 



I pray not that thou shouldest take them out 
of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them 
from the evil. — John xvii. 15. 

Give us thy grace to rise above 

The glare of this world's smelting fires ! 

Let God's great love put out the love 
Of gold and gain and low desires ! 

C. F. ALEXANDER. 

CUCH was the sensible prayer of our Lord 
^ for his disciples. No fanaticism here. 
It is our chief discipline for a better world 
to learn to live as a good man should in this 
world. A crystal is sometimes formed in the 
embrace of a bowlder of granite. To clear it 
of its rough inclosure, and to bring its beau- 
tiful facets to the light, nature submerges it 
in deep waters, shatters it by tempests, and 
abrades it by contact with stones and mud 
and the rubbish of the sea. Thus a re- 
deemed soul is by the plan of God immersed 
in the cares and toils and enticements and 
usefulness of a world of sin, so that by sheer 
resistance to evil, and abrasion with deprav- 
ity, it may be polished to the transparent 
image of him vyho made it. 

AUSTIN PHELPS. 



So 



dbarcb 19. 



Ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand 
unto. — Deut. xii. 7. 

Take Joy home, 
And make a place in thy great heart for her, 
And give her time to grow, and cherish her ! 
Then will she come and often sing to thee 
"When thou art working in the furrows ! ay, 
Or weeding in the sacred hour of dawn. 
It is a comely fashion to be glad — 
Joy is the grace we say to God. jean ingelow. 

Am I wrong to be always so happy ? This world is full 
of grief ; 

Yet there is laughter of sunshine, to see the crisp green 
leaf. 

Daylight is ringing with song birds, and brooklets croon- 
ing at night, 

And why should I make a shadow where God makes all 

so bright ? 

Earth may be wicked and weary, yet I cannot help 

being glad ; 

There is sunshine without and within me, and how 

should I mope and be sad ? 
God would not flood ine with blessings, meaning me only 

to pine, 

Amid all the bounties and beauties he pours upon me 

and mine ! 

Therefore will I be grateful, and therefore will I 

rejoice ! 

My heart is singing within me ! Sing on, oh, heart and 

voice ! WALTER SMITH. 

1DO not know of any way so sure of mak- 
ing others happy as of being so one's self. 

SIR ARTHUR HELPS. 

God bless the good-natured, for they bless 
everybody else. 



/nbarcb 20. 



Si 



Teach a just man and he will increase in 
learning. — Prov. ix. 9. 

CVERY person has two educations — one 
' which he receives from others, and one, 
more important, which he gives himself. 

GIBBON. 

Education is not a thing that a person 
pours into a boy. All that his teacher can 
do is to stir up what is in him. If he has 
any education at all he educates himself. 
Some people think that education is like 
medicine, which you can take according to 
this school or that school, from this doctor or 
that doctor ; but if a man is cured that which 
effects the cure is inside of himself. 

BEECHER. 

No man can learn what he has not prepara- 
tion for learning. . . Our eyes are holden 
that we cannot see things that stare us in the 
face until the hour arrives when the mind is 
ripened. emerson. 

It is from the mouth of the ignorant that 
we hear the words, " I know ! " from the 
diligent and well informed we hear, " Let me 
learn." maria hare. 



82 



For what is your life ? — James iv. 14. 
A holy life is a voice. 

HINTON. 

Life ! I know not what thou art, 

But know that thou and I must part ; 
And when, or how, or where we met 

I own to me's a secret yet. 
Life, we've been long together 

Through pleasant and through cloudy weather, 
'Tis hard to part when friends are dear — 

Perhaps 'twill cost a sigh, a tear ; 
Then steal away, give little warning. 

Chose thine own time ; 
Say not good-night, but in some brighter clime 

Bid me good-morning. 

ANNA LETITIA BARBOUR. 

Live on, God loves us. 

TENNYSON. 

'"PHE world is a kindergarten of little chil- 
A dren, very little children, and the great 
God is trying to give them his great love and 
his great life. lyman abbott. 

Our life is but the childhood of our 
eternity, the school days preparatory for the 
immortal years beyond. 

CANON FARRAR. 



dlbarcb 22. 



S3 



And he said unto them, The sabbath was 
made for man, and not man for the sabbath. — 
Mark ii. 27. 

The peace of God came down to meet 

The throng that laid their labor by 
And rested weary hands and feet. 

J. G. HOLLAND. 

SUNDAYS are to many of us like shafts in 
a long tunnel : they admit at regular 
intervals light and air. And though we pass 
them all too soon, their helpful influence does 
not vanish with the passing. It furnishes us 
with strength and light for the duties which 
await us, and makes it easier to follow 
loyally the road toward our eternal home 
which God's loving providence may have 
traced for each of us. dr. liddon. 

It is only when all the rest of our human 
nature is calmed that the spirit comes forth 
in full energy ; all the rest tires, the spirit 
never tires. Humbleness, awe, adoration, 
love, these have in them no w T eariness ; so 
that when this frame shall be dissolved into 
the dust of the earth, and the mind, which is 
merely fitted for this time world, learning by 
experience, shall have superseded, then, in 
the opening out of an endless career of love, 
the spirit will enter upon that Sabbath of 
which all earthly Sabbaths are but the 
shadow, F. w. Robertson. 



84 



/Ifoarcb 23. 



Not every one that saith unto me y Lord, Lord, 
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but he 
that doeth the will of my Father which is in 
heaven. — Matt. vii. 21. 

Poor sad Humanity 
Through all the dust and heat turns back with bleeding 
feet 

By the weary road it came, 
Unto the simple thought, by the Great Master taught, 

" Not he that repeateth the Name, 
But he that doeth the Will" 

LONGFELLOW. 

With golden bells, the priestly vest, 

And rich pomegranates bordered round — 

The need of Holiness expressed, 

And called for Fruit as well as Sound. 

COWPER. 

Say thou thy say and I will do my deed. 

TENNYSON. 

TT is through the God in man, in the throb- 
* bing heart of humanity, the warm, loving, 
sympathetic soul that realizes its kinship to 
the lowly and suffering that relief and solace 
must come, if at all. It is only when prayers 
are crystallized into deeds that they become 
true prayers. " If you love me, feed my 
lambs," r. t. watson. 



flfoarcb 24. 



85 



Bear ye one another s burdens, and so fulfill 
the law of Christ. — Gal. vi. 21. 

Brother, we are surely bound 

On the same journey, and our eyes alike 

Turn up and onward ; wherefore now thou risest. 

Lean on mine arm, and let us for a space 

Pursue the path together. 

BUCHANAN. 

But as we meet and touch each day 
The many travelers on our way, 
Let every such brief contact be 
A glorious, helpful ministry. 

S. COOLIDGE. 

Who means to help must still support the load. 

BROWNING. 

MUCH as I have seen of the world, of its 
triumph, of its gayeties, and of its luxury 
and magnificence, I have never been for a 
moment shaken in the conviction that the 
best thing this side heaven, the delight of life, 
its chief consolation, indeed the very charm 
of existence, is in kind affections. 

HEXRY COLMAN. 

To give a kindly hand to the many who 
long to rise, but who cannot rise without it ; 
to inspire hope, the very soul of moral re- 
covery, into those who are still fettered and 
in darkness, but who hear of a comrade's re- 
turn to moral light and liberty — this is to do 
Christ's work in the world, if anything is to 

do it. DR. LIDDOX. 



86 



/Iftarcb 25. 



When he hath tried me I shall come forth 
as gold. — Job. xxiii. 10. 

I know thee, who hast kept my path, and made 
Light for me in the darkness, tempering sorrow 
So that it reached me like a solemn joy. 



He who for love has undergone 

The worst that can befall 
Is happier thousandfold than one 

Who never loved at all. 
A grace within his soul has reigned 

Which nothing else can bring : 
Thank God for all that I have gained 

By that high suffering ! 



I shall know by the gleam and glitter 

Of the golden chain you wear, 
By your heart's calm strength in loving, 

Of the fire they have had to bear. 
Beat on, true heart, forever ! 

Shine bright, strong golden chain ; 
And bless the cleansing fire 

And the furnace of living pain ! 



UFFERING is a wonderful fertilizer to 



^ the roots of character. The great object 
of this life is character. This is the only 
thing we can carry with us into eternity. . . 
To gain the most of it and the best of it is 



BROWNING. 



LORD HOUGHTON. 



ADELAIDE PROCTOR. 




the object of probation. 



AUSTIN PHELPS. 



/toarcb 2(5. 



87 



Arise, shine ; for thy light is come, and tht 
glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. — Isaiai* 
lx. 1. 

Have we not all. amid earth's petty strife, 

Some pure ideal of a noble life 

That once seemed possible? Did we not hear 

The flutter of its wings, and feel it near, 

And just within our reach ? It was ! And yet 

We lost it in this daily jar and fret, 

And now live idle in a vague regret. 

But still our place is kept, and it will wait 

Ready for us to fill it, soon or late. 

No star is ever lost we once have seen, 

We always may be what we might have been I 

Since Good, ihough only thought, has life and bieatfc — 

God's life — can always be redeemed from death,. 

And Evil, in its nature, is decay, 

And any hour can blot it all away : 

The hopes that lo-t in some far distance seem, 

May be the truer Life — and this the dream. 

ADELAIDE PROCTOF 

The soul is greate- than all time, 
It changes not, but yet is ever new. 

But that the soul is noble we 

Could never know what nobleness had been. 
Be what ye dream ! and earth shall see 

A greater greatness than she e'er hath seen. 

LOWELL. 

GOD hides some ideal in every human 
soul. At some time in our life we feel 
a trembling, fearful longing to do some good 
thing. Life finds its noblest spring of ex- 
cellence in this hidden impulse to do our 

best. ROBERT COLLYF.R 



Aarcb 27, 



/ am among you as he that serveth. — Luke 
xxii. 27. 

" So still, dear Lord, in every place 
Thou standest by the toiling folk 
With love and pity in thy face, 
And givest of tny help and grace 

To those who meekly bear the yoke." 

A A TE need only to accept our task-work, 



y y our drudgery, our toil, in Christ's 
name, and the glory of Christ will transfigure 
it and shine upon our faces. j. r. miller. 

Caf you imagine a lowlier lot than that of 
^ servant of all work? Yet such, and no 
irore, was Santa Zita. At the age of twelve 
«;he left her little mountain village to be- 
come a servant to a family in Lucca, and in 
that poor service she continued till, at the 
age of sixty, she died. Often reviled, often 
beaten. ^ften forced to hard menial duties, 
without L.ie murmur she served in singleness 
of heart, and out of her poverty she fed the 
hungry and clothed the naked with a garment. 
And yet even in such lot men saw her happi- 
ness and the sainthood. canon farrar. 

See, I am low — yea, very low ; but thou 
art high, and thou canst lift me up to thee. 




GEO. MACDONALD. 



flfcarcb 28. 8 9 



Christ in you, the hope of glory. — Col. i. 27. 

God is never so far off as even to be near — 
He is within ! Our spirit is the home he holds most 
dear. 

To think of him as by our side is almost as untrue 
As to remove his throne beyond those skies of starry 
blue. 

So all the while I thought myself homeless, forlorn, 
and weary, 

Missing my joy, I walked the earth — myself God's 
sanctuary ! 

FABER. 

1 A 7HEN a person is known intimately 
^ * each of her movements and gestures 
bears a characteristic stamp. Even a gar- 
ment she has worn becomes instinct with life 
and individuality ; it suggests the familiar 
face, it is filled out with the well-known form. 
This, we say, belonged to her. So may God 
be discerned in humanity ; so may Christ be 
seen in his Church. 

DORA GREENWELL. 

God is all to thee ; if thou be hungry, he 
is bread ; if thirsty, he is water ; if in dark- 
ness, he is light ; if naked, he is a robe of 
immortality. st. augustine. 



go 



/IRarcb 29. 



We have renounced the hidden things of dis- 
honesty, not walking in craftiness. — 2 Cor. 
iv. 2. 

Let us not stain our honor. — 1 Maccabees 
ix. 10. 

The man of life upright, whose cheerful mind is free 
From weight of impious deeds and yokes of vanity, 
That man needs neither towers nor armor for defense ! 



Never for lucre or laurels 

Or custom,^ though such should be rife, 
Adapting the smaller morals 

To measure the larger life ! 

E. B. BROWNING. 

ET the question be, not what is popular 



let that be done though the heavens fall. 

This is the rule of that best society which 
makes no ostentatious display, and indulges 
in no sham tastes or sham enthusiasms, or 
other unrealities, but is distinguished by 
simplicity and genuineness. 



One of the most significant evidences of 
conversion was given by a poor and ignorant 
man to a committee of examination for his 
admission to the Church when he said, " I 
don't know what religion has done for me in 
my business, except that I have burned my 
bushel measure." austin phelps. 



CAMPION. 




what is honest, and 



SAMUEL SMITH HARRIS. 



/Dbarcb 30, 



9^ 



Be careful for nothing, but in everything by 
prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let 
your requests be made known unto God. — 
Phil. iv. 6. 

Prayer is the burden of a sigh, 

The falling of a tear — 
The upward glancing of an eye 

When none but God is near. 

MONTGOMERY. 

Speak to him thou, for he hears, and spirit with 

spirit can meet ; 
Closer is he than breathing, and nearer than hands and 

feet. 

TENNYSON. 

PRAY much, for it is to the soul what the 
air we breathe is to our bodies. 

FRED H. RICHARDSON. 

Prayer is being with God. 

DR. PUSEY. 

" St. Paul has a wonderful word on this 
subject: 'God/ he says, 'is able to do 
exceeding abundantly above all that we ask 
or think. When our heart is stirred to its 
depths, what large, great things can we ask in 
words? Then how much can we put into 
thoughts of prayer, into longings, desires, 
aspirations, beyond the possibilities of speech ? 
God can do more than we can pray either in 
words or thoughts/ " 



9* 



Aarcb 31. 



I have bee?i youngs and now am old : yet have 
I not see?! the righteous forsaken, nor his seed 
fogging bread. — Psalm xxxvii. 25. 

OUR bills of exchange, upon the credit of 
which we lay our cares down and receive 
provisions for our need, are these : 1 Take no 
thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or 
what ye shall drink ; nor yet for your body, 
what ye shall put on. Is not the life more ■ 
than meat, and the body than raiment ? Be- 
hold the fowls of the air : for they sow not, 
neither do they reap, nor gather into barns ; 
yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. 
Are ye not much better than they ? Which 
of you by taking thought can add one cubit 
to his stature ? And why take ye thought 
for raiment ? Consider the lilies of the field 
how they grow ; they toil not, neither do they 
spin ; and yet I say unto you, That even Solo- 
mon in all his glory was not arrayed like one 
of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the 
grass of the field, which to-day is, and to- 
morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much 
more clothe you, oh, ye of little faith ? There- 
fore take no thought, saying. What shall we 
eat ? or. What shall we drink ? or. Wherewithal 
shall we be clothed ? . . . for your heavenly 
Father knoweth that ye have need of all these 
things. But seek ye first the kingdom of 
God and his righteousness, and all these 
things shall be added unto you.' " 



apm t. 



93 



CHRISTUS CONSOLATOR. 

Beside the dead I knelt for prayer, 
And felt a presence as I prayed, 

Lo ! it was Jesus standing there. 
He smiled : " Be not afraid! " 

" Lord, thou hast conquered death, we know. 

Restore again to life," I said, 
" This one who died an hour ago." 

He smiled : " She is not dead ! " 

" Asleep, then, as thyself didst say; 

Yet thou canst lift the lids that keep 
Her prisoned eyes from ours away." 

He smiled : " She doth not sleep ! " 

" Nay, then, tho' haply she do wake, 
And look upon some fairer dawn, 

Restore her to our hearts that ache." 
He smiled : " She is not gone ! " 

" Alas ! too well we know our loss, 
Nor hope again our joy to touch, 

Until the stream of death we cross." 
He smiled : " There is no such ! " ' 

" Yet our beloved seem so far, 

The while we yearn to feel them near, 

Albeit with thee we trust they are." 
He smiled ; " And I am here ! " 



94 



" Dear Lord, how shall we know that they 
Still walk unseen with us and thee, 

Nor sleep, nor wander far away ? " 
He smiled : " Abide in me." 



H, Almighty God, who hast knit together 



thine elect in one communion and fel- 
lowship in the mystical body of thy Son 
Christ, our Lord, grant us grace so to follow 
thy blessed saints in all virtuous and godly 
living that we may come to those unspeak- 
able joys which thou hast prepared for them 
that unfeignedly love thee, through Jesus 
Christ our Lord," 

" I believe in the communion of saints." 

They are above us, but not too much 
above us. They are still branches of the 
same vine, members of the same body. The 
branches of the tree are equally near to each 
other, whether the moonlight shine on all or 
only on one branch. The hand in the 
shadow and the hand in the light are not 
more near to each other than we are to 
them. . . The union remains, the union 
with Christ and with each other. 



ROSSITER W. RAYMOND. 




BISHOP WILKINSON. 



Bprtl 2. 



9b 



Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. — 
Psalm lxi. 2. 

" Better to strive and climb, 

And never reach the goal, 
Than to drift along- with time — 

An aimless, worthless soul. 
Aye, better to climb and fall, 

Or sow, though the yield be small, 
Than to throw away day after day, 

And never strive at all." 

IT was perhaps some outward calamity that 
wrung this prayer from the Psalmist. Be 
it what it may — loss, sorrow, even remorse^ 
it brought him redemption from a more 
grievous ill — the burden of himself. By the 
very tone of his strain you may know, without 
seeing him, that his face is turned upward. 
He has found that there is a higher than he, 
a too high for him, a rock he cannot climb of 
himself, yet whither he must be led if ever 
he is to have peace again. 

JAMES MARTINEAU. 

Do not pray for crutches, but for wings. 

PHILLIPS BROOKS. 

When the blessed spirit that bloweth where 
it listeth visits you and stirs the plumage of 
the soul, seek no cowardly shelter from it, 
but fling yourself upon it, and though its 
sweep be awful, you shall be sustained. 

JAMES MARTINEAU. 



9 6 



Bpril 3. 



We look not at the things which are seen, but 
at the things which are not seen. — 2 Cor. iv. 1 8. 

The ear of man cannot hear, and the eye of man can- 
not see, 

But if we could see and he^r this vision — were it not 
he? 

TENNYSON. 

1 1 Oil. how I fear thee, living God, 
With deepest, tenderest fears." 

^PHY true Beginning and Father is in 
* heaven, whom with the bodily eye thou 
shalt never behold, but only with the 
spiritual. carlyle. 

" Questions crowd upon the mind. What 
is matter shorn of its attributes ? Is it any- 
thing ? Was it created ? Is it eternal and 
inseparable from the Divine Spirit whicc 
pervades it ? Unanswerable questions. Yet 
am I sure that it is God who is pushing up- 
ward this little blade of grass, opening the 
petals of this blue violet, waving the branches 
of the trees, and guiding through the air 
that bird which wings its way across the blue. 
How awful, yet how glad ! 4 Thou hast 
beset me behind and before, and laid thine 
hand upon me.' " 



97 



And he put forth a parable to those which 
were bidden, when he marked how they chose out 
the chief rooms. — Luke xiv. 7. 

Only when thou shalt yield thy will to His, 
Renouncing self's vain dreams, and take thy place 
Among the lowest, shalt thy power return 
To speak his word, to bow men's hearts to him. 



LWAY there is a black spot in our sun- 



shine ; it is . . . the shadow of our- 



To most men and women self is everything. 
Their whole life is a room lined with looking- 
glasses, presenting to them in all directions, 
and at every glance, innumerable reflections 
and multiplications of their own petty and 
worthless selves. With boundless self-im- 
portance, as though the world was made for 
them, and everybody was looking at them 
and thinking of them, they make themselves, 
their own low selves, the whole. 



He that is selfish and cuts off his own soul 
from the universal soul of all rational beings, 
is a kind of voluntary outlaw. 

MARCUS AURELIUS, 



PLUMPTRE. 




selves. 



CARLYLE. 



CANON FARRAR. 



9 8 



Spril 5, 



Let no man seek his awn, but every man 
another s wealth. — i Cor. x. 24. 

Measure thy life by loss instead of gain, 
Not by the wine drunk, but the wine poured forth. 
For love's strength standeth in love's sacrifice, 
And whoso suffers most hath most to give. 

THE DISCIPLES. 

ACCORDING to our Lord's teaching, we 
can make the most of our life by losing 
it. He says that losing the life for his sake is 
saving it. j. r. miller. 

St. Macarius, the hermit, lived in the 
desert in a little community of solitaries. 
One day there was brought to him that which 
in the hot desert is the most tempting and 
exquisite of all luxuries, a bunch of fresh 
purple grapes with the bloom and mist of 
their delicious ripeness upon them. Ma- 
carius hated the thought of taking them him- 
self ; he preferred that another should enjoy 
the boon, and handed it to one of the brothers; 
but the same motive was strong in him, and 
he gave it to another. But. again, this other 
preferred the enjoyment of a companion to 
his own ; and so, in the absolute unselfishness 
of that little community, the untouched, 
tempting grapes were handed from one to 
another, none wishing to keep what would be 
pleasant to his fellow, till at last they were 
handed back to Macarius again 

CANON FARRAR. 



Spril 6, 



99 



Thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. — 
Isaiah xxxviii. 17. 

God's love runneth faster than our feet 
To meet us stealing back to him and peace, 
And kisses dumb our shame, nay, and puts on 
The best robe, bidding angels bring it forth. 

EDWIN ARNOLD. 

Shall Sorrow win His pity, and not Sin — 
That burden ten times heavier to be borne ? 

Once in old Jerusalem 
A woman kneeled at consecrated feet, 
Kissed them and washed them with her tears. 

What then? 
I think that yet our Lord is pitiful. 

JEAN INGELOW. 

A S long as you set your sins before your 
face, he will set them behind his back. 
Do you ask how I know that ? I will not 
quote texts, though there are dozens. I will 
not quote my own spiritual experience, 
though I could honestly. I will only say 
that such a moral law is implied in the very 
idea of " Our Father in heaven ! " 

CHARLES KINGSLEY. 



Let the sinless throw ! And the sinners 
went out, and she followed — to sin no more. 

GEO. MACDONALD. 



too 



Hpril 7, 



I have chosen the way of truth. — Psalm 
cxix. 30. 



First find thou Truth, and then, 

Although she strays 
From beaten paths of men 

To untrod ways, 
Her leading follow straight, 
And bide thy fate. 



UT faith in truth as mightier than error, 



1 prejudice, or passion, and be ready to 
take a place among its martyrs. Feel that 
truth is not a local, temporary influence, but 
immutable, everlasting, the same in all worlds, 
one with God and armed with his omnipo- 
tence. CHANNING. 

The simple precept, Seek the truth, re- 
spect the truth, and believe the truth, is one 
without which no character can be perfect ; 
and it is one which will make a character for 
a man, though he have never read a line of 
theology, never listened to a single sermon, 
never entered the portals of a church. There 
is no heroism comparable to the determina- 
tion to speak the truth. 



W. S. SHURTLEFF. 




HELEN WILMANS. 



Bprit S. 



101 



Blessed are ike merciful : for they shall 
obtain mercy. — Matt. v. 7. 

" Let Thy love our pattern be ; 
Let thy mercy teach one brother 
To forgive and love another ; 
That copying thy mercy here 
Thy goodness may hereafter rear 
Our souls unto thy glory when 
Our dust shall cease to be with men." 

We pray together at the kirk 

For mercy — mercy solely ; 
Hands weary with the evil work, 

We lift them to the Holv. 

Be pitiful, 0 God! 

E. B. BROWNING. 



The quality of mercy is not strained : 
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven 
Upon the place beneath ! It is twice blessed — 
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes. 

SHAKSPERE. 

\ A 7"E are unmerciful when without neces- 
v v sity we are judges of evil thoughts, 
when we suspect meanness, littleness, un- 
truthfulness — not to speak of worse sur- 
mises — in others. The merciful in thought 
give no room in their hearts for suspicions 
such as these. They do not secretly impute 
evil. TREXCH. 



102 



Sprit 0- 



Cause 7?ie to k?iow the way wherein I should 
walk. — Psalm cxliii. 8. 

HE what you ought to be ; the rest is God's 
affair. It is for him to know what is 
best. AMIEL. 

Leave consequences to God, but do right 
Be genuine, real, sincere, true, upright, God- 
like. The w T orld's maxim is, Trim your sails 
and yield to circumstances. But if you 
would do any good in your generation you 
must be made of sterner stuff, and help make 
your times rather than be made by them. 
You must not yield to customs, but like the 
anvil endure all blows, until the hammers 
break themselves. When misrepresented 
use no crooked means to clear yourself. 
Clouds do not last long. If in the course of 
duty you are tried by the distrust of friends, 
gird up your loins and say in your heart, I 
was not driven to virtue by the encourage- 
ment of friends, nor will I be repelled from 
it by their coldness. Finally, " Be just and 
fear not. M Corruption wins not more than 
honesty ; truth lives and reigns when false- 
hood dies and rots. spurgeon. 



Sprit 10. 



103 



Ye that once were far off are made nigh in 
the blood of Christ. — Ephesians ii. 13 (R. V.). 

To make all men see ivJiat is the fellowship of 
the mystery, — Ephesians iii. 9. 

Small, great, are merely terras we bandy here, 
Since to the spirit's absoluteness all 

Are like. browning. 

All who speak truth to me commissioned are ; 
All who love God are in my Church embraced. 
Not that I have no sense of preference — 

None deeper ! — but I rather love to draw, 

Even here, on earth, on toward the future law 
And heaven's fine etiquette, where " Who?" 
and " Whence ?" 

May not be asked, and at the wedding feast 
North shall sit down with south, 

And west with east ! 



HERE is no horizontal stratification of 



1 society in this country like the rocks in 
the earth, that hold one class down below 
for evermore, and let another come to the sur- 
face to stay there forever. Our stratifica- 
tion is like the ocean, where every individual 
drop is free to move, and where from the 
sternest depths of the mighty deep any drop 
may come up to glitter on the highest wave 
that rolls. james a. garfield. 



BURBIDGE. 




104 



Love never faileth. When that which is per- 
fect is come, then that which is in part shall be 
do?ie away. — i Cor. xiii. 8, io (R. V.). 

Make channels for the streams of love 

Where they may broadly run, 
For love has overflowing streams 

To rill them every one. 

TRENCH. 

Lo ! there is no more mortal and immortal ! 
Nought is on earth or in the heavens but love ! 

MYERS, 

LOVE is the first comforter, and where love 
and truth speak the love will be felt 
where the truth is never perceived. Love, 
indeed, is the highest in all truth ; and the 
pressure of a hand, a kiss, the caress of a 
child, will do more to save, sometimes, than 
the wisest argument, even rightly understood. 
Love alone is wisdom, love alone is power ; 
and where love seems to fail it is where self 
has stepped between and dulled the potency 
of its rays. geo. macdoxald. 

Man was made for love, he lives by love ; 
and the measure of his life is the largeness 
and liberty of his love. He is born into the 
arms and nourished on the breast of love. 
And in domestic life we often see developed 
an almost miraculous force of disinterested 
affection. But the human heart was not 
designed to be confined to home, however 
heavenly that home may be. chaxnixg. 



April 12. 



Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose 
mind is stayed on thee. — Isaiah xxvi. 3. 

As for thee, 
That life thou hast is hidden from thine eyes, 
And when it yearns thou — knowing- not for what — 
Wouldst fain appease it with one grand, deep joy, * 
One draught of passionate peace. But wilt thou know 
The other name of joy, the better name 
Of peace ? It is thy Father's name ! Thy life 
Yearns to its source ! The spirit thirsts for God, 
Even the living God I 

JEAN INGELOW. 

Only to let go earth, 
To let go, listen, love, and have. For them 
The kingdom came ! came ! and we did not need 
To merit, or to seek, or strive, or wait : 
We needed but to know him one with God, 
And we with him, and then his peace was ours. 

EDWIN ARNOLD. 

THIS is the portion of those who love God — 
peace. You remember how, before that 
august experience of our Master, on the eve 
of his wondrous suffering, as he sat in loving 
conversation with his disciples, in one of 
those matchless discourses which preceded 
his death, he said to them, although he was 
under the very impending cloud, and knew 
it was close at hand, understood the mystery 
of that world-suffering upon which he was 
about to enter, " Peace I give to you — my 
peace." Oh, what a peace that must have 
been, with such environments ! beecher. 



io6 



Sprit 13. 



Ye shall leave me alone j and yet I am not 
alone \ because the Father is with me. — John 
xvi. 32. 

Ah, human comfort ! None but God is great 
Enough for loneliness \ 

MARGARET PRESTON. 

We live together years and years, 

And leave unsounded still 
Each other's springs of hopes and fears, 

Each other's depths of will — 
We live together day by day, 

And some chance look or tone 
Lights up with instantaneous ray 

An inner world unknown. 



Seldom can the heart be lonely, 

If it seek a lonelier still — 
Self-forgetting, seeking only 

Emptier cups of love to fill. 

F. R. HAVERGAL. 



O be misunderstood even by those whom 



1 one loves is the cross and bitterness of 
life. It is the secret of that sad and mel- 
ancholy smile on the lips of great men which 
so few understand. . . It is what must have 
oftenest wrung the heart of the Son of man. 



HOUGHTON. 




AMIEL. 



Sprit 14. 



Casting all your care upon him ; for he careth 
for you. — i Peter v. 7. 

Among so many can He care ? 
Can special love be everywhere ? 
A myriad homes — a myriad ways, 
And God's eye over every place ? 

MRS. A. D. T. WHITNEY. 

What matters it to Him who holds within 
The hollow of his hand all worlds, all space, 

That thou art done with earthly pain and sin ? 
Somewhere within his ken thou hast a place. 

JULIA C. R. DORR. 

r F)UT if you had sons at sea," I said, "it 
D would not be of much good to you to 
feel safe yourself, so long as they were in 
danger." 

" Oh, yes, it be, sir. What's the good of 
feeling safe yourself but it let you know 
other people be safe too? It's when you 
don't feel safe yourself that you feel other 
people ben't safe." 

" But," I said . . . " some of your sons were 
drowned for all that you say about safety." 

"Well, sir," she answered, with a sigh, 
" I trust they're none the less safe for that. 
It would be a strange thing for an old woman 
like me ... to suppose that safety lay in 
not being drowned. . . What is the bottom 
of the sea, sir ? " 

" The hollow of his hand," I said, and 
said no more. geo. macdonald. 



Bprtl 15. 



Seest thou a man diligent in business ? he shall 
stand before hiugs ; he shall not stand before 
mean men. — Pro v. xxii. 29. 

FIDELITY is seven-tenths of business suc- 



It is an utterly low view of business which 
regards it as only a means of getting a liv- 
ing. A man's business is his part of the 
world's work, his share of the great activities 
which render society possible. He may like 
it or dislike it, but it is work, and as such re- 
quires application, self-denial, discipline. 



The great secret of success in life is for 
a man to be ready when his opportunity 



Poverty is uncomfortable, as lean testify ; 
but nine times out of ten the best thing that 
can happen to a young man is to be tossed 
overboard and compelled to sink or swim for 
himself. In all my acquaintance I never 
knew a man to be drowned who was worth the 
saving. james a. garfield- 




PARTON. 



Pall Mall Gazette. 



comes. 



DISRAELI. 



109 



He that loveth not his brother, whom he hath 
seen, how can he love God, whom he hath not 
seen? — 1 John iv. 20. 

He is bound to me, 
For human love makes aliens near of kin. 

J. INGELOW. 

ALL good is of God. Robert began where 
he could. The first table was too high 
for him ; he began with the second. If a 
man love his brother, whom he hath seen, the 
love of God, whom he hath not seen, is not 
very far off. These results in Robert were 
the first outcome of divine facts and in- 
fluences ; they were the buds of the fruit 
hereafter to be gathered in perfect devotion, 
God be praised by those who know religion 
to be the truth of humanity — its own truth 
that sets it free. 

GEO. MACDONALD. 

He is not ashamed to call them brethren. 

ST. PAUL. 

To love the whole Church is one thing ; 
to love — that is, to delight in the graces and 
veil the defects of — the person who misun- 
derstood me and opposed my plans yester- 
day, whose peculiar infirmities grate on my 
most sensitive feelings, or whose natural 
faults are precisely those from which my 
natural character most revolts, is quite 
another. Elizabeth Charles. 



no 



Bprtl 17. 



Their strength is to sit still. — Isatah xxx. 7. 

If love in its silence be greater, stronger 
Than million promises, sighs, or tears-— 

I will wait upon him a little longer 
Who holdeth the balance of our years. 

D. M. CRAIK. 

God doth not need 
Either man's works or his own gifts ; who best 
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state 
Is kingly ; thousands at his bidding speed, 
And post o'er land and ocean without rest ; 
They also serve who only stand and wait. 

MILTON. 

BEAUTIFUL is the activity which works 
for good, and beautiful the stillness 
which waits for good ; blessed the self-sacri- 
fice of the one, blessed the self-forgetfulness 
of the other. robert collyer. 

I believe that if we could only see before- 
hand what it is that our heavenly Father 
means us to be — the soul beauty and perfec- 
tion and glory, the glorious and lovely 
spiritual body that this soul is to dwell in 
through all eternity — if w T e could have a 
glimpse of this, we should not grudge all the 
trouble and pains he is taking with us now 
to bring us up to that ideal which is his 

thought Of US. ANNIE KEARY. 

There are seasons when to be still de- 
mands immeasurably higher strength than to 
act. Composure is often the highest result 
of power. channing, 



Sprtt 13. 



in 



Ye are the temple of the living God. — 2 Cor. 
vi. 16. 

Fling wide the portals of your heart ; 
Make it a temple set apart 
From earthly use for Heaven's employ, 
Adorned with prayer and love and joy. 
So shall your Sovereign enter in, 
And new and noble life begin. 

Weiszel. 

TT is said of Solomon's temple that it was 
* built without the sound of hammer. The 
soul is a temple, and God is silently build- 
ing it by night and by day. Precious 
thoughts are building it. Disinterested love 
is building it. All penetrating faith is build- 
ing it. Gentleness and meekness and sweet 
solicitude and sympathy are building it. All 
virtue and all goodness are workmen upon 
that invisible temple which every man 
is. . . It shall be a temple built in the dark- 
ness to reveal light, built in sorrow to pro- 
duce joy which shall never die. 

H. W. BEECHER. 

He who rears up one child in Christian 
virtue, or recovers one fellow-creature to 
God, builds a temple more precious than 
Solomon's or St. Peter's, more enduring than 
earth or heaven. channing. 



112 



Bprtl 19. 



The Lord God hath given me the tongue of 
the learned, that I should know how to speak a 
word in season to him that is weary. — Isaiah 



I have known a word more gentle 

Than the breath of summer air : 
In a listening heart it nestled, 

And it lived forever there. 
Not the beating of its prison 

Stirred it, even, night or day ; 
Only with the heart's last throbbing 

Could it fade away. 

Words are mighty, words are living : 

Serpents with their venomous stings, 
Or bright angels crowding round us, 

With heaven's light upon their wings. 
Every word has its own spirit, 

True or false, that never dies ; 
Every word man's lips have uttered 

Echoes in God's skies. 



OLD words freeze people, and hot words 



^ scorch them, and bitter words make them 
bitter, and wrathful words make them wrath- 
ful. Kind words make people good-natured. 
Though they do not cost much, yet they ac- 



Half the sorrows of women would be 
averted if they could repress the speech they 
know to be useless — nay, the speech they 
have resolved not to utter. george eliot. 



1. 4 . 



ADELAIDE PROCTOR. 




complish much. 



pascal. 



Bprtl 20. 



"3 



What must I do to be saved? — Acts xvi. 30. 
My son, give me thine heart. — Prov. xxiii. 
26. 

What can I give him, 

Poor as I am ? 
If I were a shepherd 

I would bring a lamb ; 
If I were a wise man 

I would do my part ; 
Yet what can I give him ? 

Give my heart. 

CHRISTINA ROSSETTI. 

" Have I not shunned the path of sin, 

And chosen the better part ? " 
What voice came through the sacred air ? 

" My child, give me thy heart ! " 

ADELAIDE PROCTOR. 

«T DON'T know God " 

* "Ah, my dear ! that is where it all lies. 
You do not know him, or you would never be 
without hope." 

" But what am I to do to know him ? " she 
asked. . . 

The saving power of hope was already 
working in her. She was once more turning 
her face toward the life. " Read as you 
have never read before about Christ Jesus^ 
my love. Read with the express object of 
finding out what God is like, that you may 
know him and may trust him." 

GEO. MACDONALP. 



U4 



Sprit 21. 



The shadow of a great rock in a weary land. 
— Isaiah xxxii. 2. 

Oh, shadow in a sultry land ! 

We gather to thy breast, 
Whose love, unfolding like the night, 

Brings quietude and rest, 
Glimpse of the fairer life to be, 

In foretaste here possessed. 

C. M. PACKARD. 

TTE that hath built an everlasting world, at 
* * once the shelter of victorious goodness 
and the theater of its yet nobler triumphs, 
enwraps us in his immensity, and sustains us 
by his love. The sooner we learn to lean on 
him and find comfort in the society of God, 
the better are we prepared for every solemn 
passage of our existence. 

JAMES MARTINEAU. 

Trust in God, as Moses did, let the way 
be ever so dark, and it shall come to pass 
that your life at last shall surpass even your 
longing. Not, it may be, in the line of that 
longing : that shall be as it pleaseth God ; 
but the glory is as sure as the grace, and the 
most ancient heavens are not more sure than 

that. ROBERT COLLYER. 

God's remedy for weariness is God. 

j. F. KITTO. 



Bpril 22, 



"5 



In everything give thanks : for this is the will 
of God. — i Thess. v. 18. 

A thousand blessings, Lord, to us thou dost impart, 
We ask one blessing more, O Lord — a thankful heart. 

TRENCH. 

When thou hast thanked thy God for every blessing 
sent, 

What time will then remain for murmurs or lament? 

TRENCH. 

Give thanks for sun and dew and love and flowers, 
For dawn and eve, for life and labor's quest ; 

Thanks for our meed of youth, for rapturous hours, 
For folded hands, and, best of all, for rest. 

IDA MAY DAVIS. 

T^vO not let your head run upon that which 
is none of your own, but pick out some 
of the. best of your circumstances, and con- 
sider how eagerly you would wish for them 
were they not in your possession. 

MARCUS AURELIUS. 

And herein a good man imitates the bells, 
that ring as pleasantly at a funeral as at a 
wedding. When it goes well with him he 
praiseth the mercy of God ; when ill with him 
he magnifies his justice. He is thankful in 
all conditions, not slightly, as the manner of 
the world is, but cheerfully, and with a good 
courage. thomas Cheshire, 



xi6 



aptu 23. 



Let them learn first to show piety at home. — 
i Timothy v. 4. 

IF we cannot find God in your house and 
mine, upon the roadside or the margin of 
the sea, in the bursting seed or opening 
flower, in the day duty and the night mus- 
ing, I do not think we should discern him 
any more on the grass of Eden or beneath 
the moonlight of Gethsemane. 

JAMES MARTINEAU. 

The devotional life is not meant to be 
divorced from the practical. Spiritual truth 
was not meant to be banished from the work 
of the world. Men cannot always sit at the 
foot of the cross. They cannot always abide 
in the hallowed upper chamber of prayer : 
for ever and anon there comes to most of 
them a call for daily bread. If religion is to 
hold its influence over them it must go with 
them to their work, and teach them how to 
live as well as how to die. 

SAMUEL SMITH HARRIS. 

My kind mother taught me, less, indeed, 
by word than by act and daily reverent look 
and habitude, her own simple version of 
the Christian faith. Andreas too attended 
church ; yet more like a parade duty, for 
which he in the other world expected pay with 
arrears, , . , carlyle. 



Bpril 24. 



117 



Can thy heart endure! — Ezekiel xxii. 14. 

Be thou thyself ! So strongly, grandly bear 
Thee on what seems thy hard, mistaken road, 

That thou shalt breathe heaven's clearest upper air, 
And so forget thy feet that meet the clod. 

C. GREENE. 

\ A 7E never have more than we can bear. 

* * The present hour we are always able 
to endure. As our day, so is our strength. 
If the trials of many years were gathered into 
one they would overwhelm us ; therefore, 
in pity to our little strength, he sends first 
one, then another, then removes both, and 
lays on a third, heavier, perhaps, than either; 
but all is so wisely measured to our strength 
that the bruised reed is never broken. 

H. E. MANNING. 

This poor one thing I do — instead of repin- 
ing at its lowness or its hardness — I will 
make it glorious by my supreme loyalty to its 
demand. gannett. 

To be silent, to suffer, to pray when we 
cannot act, is acceptable to God. A disap- 
pointment, a contradiction, a harsh word re- 
ceived and endured as in his presence, is 
worth more than a long prayer. 

FENELON. 



Sprit 25. 



Work out your own salvation with fear and 
trembling. — Phil. ii. 12. 

All those who journey soon or late 
Must pass within the garden's gate ; 
Must kneel alone in darkness there, 
And battle with some fierce despair. 
God pity those who cannot say, 
" Not mine, but thine " ; who only pray, 
" Let this cup pass," and cannot see 
The purpose in Gethsemane. 

ELLA WHEELER. 

The great moral combat between human life 
And each human soul must be single. 
The strife none can share, though by all its results may 
be known. 

When the soul arms for battle, she goes forth alone. 

OWEN MEREDITH. 

\TOTHING can alter the responsibility 
* ^ which is laid upon each soul. 

WESTCOTT. 

But for all of us the road has to be walked 
every step, and the uttermost farthing paid. 
The gate will open wide to welcome us, but 
will not come to meet us. Neither is it any 
use to turn aside ; it only makes the road 
longer and harder. geo. macdonald. 

You are not made yet, as I am always tell- 
ing you. And God has ordained that you 
shall have a hand in your own making. 

GEO. MACDONALD. 



Bpnl 26. 



119 



Rejoice in the Lord alway : and again I say, 
Rejoice. — Phil. iv. 4. 

I thank thee too that thou hast made 

Joy to abound, 
So many gentle thoughts and deeds 

Circling us round 
That in the darkest spots of earth 

Some love is found. 

ADELAIDE PROCTOR. 

The men who met him rounded on their heels 
And wonder'd after him, because his face 

Shone like the countenance of a priest of old 
Against the flame about a sacrifice 

Kindled by fire from heaven : so glad was he. 

TENNYSON. 

You find yourself refreshed by the pres- 
ence of cheerful people ; why not make 
earnest efforts to confer that pleasure on 
others ? You will find half the battle is 
gained if you will never allow yourself to say 
anything gloomy. lydia m. child. 

" Resolve to see the world on the sunny 
side, and you have almost won the battle of 
life at the outset." 



120 



BprU 27. 



Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst 
after righteousness : for they shall be filled.— 
Matt. v. 6. 

Father, I cry to thee for bread, 

With hungered longing, eager prayer, 

Thou hear'st, and givest me instead 
More hunger and a half despair. 

0 Lord ! how long ? My days decline ; 
My youth is lapped in memories old ; 

1 need not bread alone, but wine — 
See, cup and hand to thee I hold. 

And yet thou givest ; thanks, O Lord, 
That still my heart with hunger faints ; 

The day will come when at thy board 
I sit forgetting all my plaints. 

If rain must come and wind must blow, 
And I pore long o'er dim seen chart, 

Yet, Lord, let not the hunger go, 
And keep the faintness at my heart. 

GEO. MACDONALD. 

THEY "who hunger and thirst after right- 
eousness," whose consciousness will not 
let them rest, who seek after a better standard 
of right and wrong, truth and falsehood, 
purity and impurity, justice and injustice, 
than they find in the world around them ; to 
whom justice is a positive joy, and injustice a 
deep and rankling grief ; who long with the 
longing of the Psalmist, in a dry and thirsty 
land, to be better themselves, and to make 
others better also ; these " shall be satisfied." 

DEAN STANLEY. 



2lpnl 28. 



121 



New wine must be put into new bottles. — 
Mark ii. 22. 

Progress— the stride of God. 

VICTOR HUGO. 

Man must pass from old to new, 

From vain to real, from mistake to fact, 

From what once seemed good to what now proves best. 

How could man have progression otherwise ? 

BROWNING. 

LET us, then, be of good cheer. From the 
great law of progress we may derive 
at once our duties and our encouragements. 
Humanity has ever advanced, urged by the 
instincts and necessities implanted by God ; 
thwarted sometimes by obstacles which have 
caused it for a time — a moment only in the 
immensity of ages — to deviate from its true 
lines or to seem to retreat, but still ever 
onward. Charles sumner. 

The path of all excellence lies in the fol- 
lowing of advancing ideas which rise as we 
approach them, and which are perpetually 
calling us from loftier heights. Christianity 
alone among religions places its golden age 
in the future. . . 

If you would be useful and happy, if you 
would be strong and brave, believe in the 
future, believe in it for yourselves, believe in 
it for the world. Believe in a millenium of 
some kind or other. 

SAMUEL SMITH HARRIS. 



122 



If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those 
things which are above. — Col. iii. i. 

Alas ! why will ye not from sin arise, 
And be Christ's beautiful ? 



And from that glad hour ... I found myself alive 

who had been dead. 
And saved by Love, who dwelt so lovelessly . 



O become like Christ is the only thins: in 



1 the world worth caring for, the thing 
before which every ambition of man is folly, 
and all lower achievement vain. Those only 
who make this quest the supreme desire and 
passion of their lives can ever begin to hope 
to reach it. . . 

The image of Christ that is forming within 
us — that is life's one charge. Let every 
project stand aside for that. " Till Christ 
be formed " no man's work is finished, no 
religion crowned, no life has fulfilled its end. 
Is the infinite task begun ? When, how, are 
we to be different ? Time cannot change 
men. Death cannot change men. Christ 
can. Wherefore put on Christ. 



"I am the Resurrection and the Life." 



SUTTON. 



EDWIN ARNOLD. 




DRUMMOND. 



Bpril 30, 



123 



The eternal God is thy refuge, and under- 
neath are the everlasting arms. — Deut. xxxiii. 



The All-enfolding, the All-upholding-, 

Folds and upholds he not 

Thee, me, himself? 

Arches not there the sky above us ? 

Lies not beneath us firm the earth ? 

And rise not on us, shining 

Friendly, the everlasting stars? 



HE everlasting arms " — I think of that 



1 whenever rest is sweet. How the whole 
earth and the strength of it, that is almighti- 
ness, is beneath every tired creature to give it 
rest, holding us always ! Xo thought of God 
is closer than that. No human tenderness of 
patience is greater than that which gathers in 
its arms a little child and holds it, heedless of 
weariness. And he fills the great earth, and 
all upon it, with this unseen force of his love, 
that never forgets or exhausts itself, so that 
everywhere we may lie down in his bosom 
and be comforted. a. d. t. whitney. 



27. 



GOETHE. 




It is impossible for that man to despair 
who remembers that his helper is omnipotent. 

JEREMY TAYLOR. 



124 



As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I 
comfort you. — Isaiah xliv. 13. 

Sing it, mother — sing it low, 

Deem it not an idle lay ; 
In his heart 'twill ebb and flow 

All the lifelong day. 



Sing it, mother — softly sing, 
While he slumbers on thy knee ; 

All that after years may bring 
Shall flow back to thee. 



Sing it mother — love is strong : 
When the tears of manhood fall 

Echoes of thy cradle song 
Shall its peace recall. 

Sing it, mother — when his ear 
Catcheth first the Voice Divine, 

Dying, he may smile to hear 
What he deemeth thine. 

J. B. TABB. 

T BELIEVE that God sends children into 
* life, and never forgets them. . . I believe 
that our children come out of the bosom of 
God's love, that they are born in hope, and 
that they are to be brooded over by the 
divine providence. This is an unspeakable 
comfort. h, w. beecher. 



For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and 
gone. The flowers appear upon the earth, the 
time of the singing of birds is come. — Cant ii. 

II, 12. 

Thrice blessed Spring ! Thou bearest gifts divine. 
Sunshine and song and fragrance, all are thine. 

Nor unto earth alone : 
Thou hast a blessing for the human heart, 
Balm for its wounds, and healing for its smart ; 

Telling of winter flown, 
And bringing hope upon thy rainbow wing, 
Type of eternal life — thrice blessed spring ! 

WILLIAM H. BURLEIGH. 

CONSIDER that all which appears beauti- 
ful outwardly is solely derived from the 
invisible Spirit which is the source of that 
external beauty, and say joyfully, " Behold, 
these are streamlets from the uncreated foun- 
tain ; behold, these are drops from the infinite 
ocean of all good ! Oh, how does my 
inmost heart rejoice at the thought of that 
eternal, infinite beauty which is the source 
and origin of all created beauty ! 

L. SCUPOLI. 

I see every bud opening. I see the ferns 
with their violet-like fronds, and even the 
rough maple has a tender blossom. Every- 
thing is blooming and singing. Oh, this happy 
watching for every single green leaf, for the 
opening of every bud ! auerbach. 



1 26 



Be it unto thee even as thou wilt — Matt. xiv. 
28. 

We make the light through which we see 

The Light, and make the dark. 
To hear the lark sing we must be 

At heaven's gate with the lark. 

ALICE CARY. 

Let him walk in the gloom whoso will. Peace be with 

him ! But whence is his right 
To assert that the world is in darkness because he has 

turned from the light? 
Or to seek to o'ershadow my day with the pall of his 

self-chosen night ? 

SOLOMON 50LI5 COHEN. 

^pO most of us, and in most respects, the 
* world and life are what our own will 
makes them, because they reflect ourselves. 
The cheerful man and the melancholy man 
behold the same world, yet to the one it is 
all beauty and gladness, the heavens are 
sphered in light, and the mountains crowned 
with day ; to the other all is dark and dismal, 
and the very heavens are hung in black. 
Life takes its coloring from the mind in 
which it is reflected. 

SAMUEL SMITH HARRIS. 

How paint to the sensual eye what passes 
in the holy of holies of man's soul ? 

CARLYLE, 



127 



Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the 
wilderness to be tempted of the devil. — Matt. 
iv. 1. 

My soul, be on. thy guard ; 

Ten thousand foes arise ! 
The hosts of sin are pressing hard 

To draw thee from the skies. 



EMPTATIONS in the wilderness ! Have 



1 we not all to be tried with such ? . . . 
Name it as we choose : with or without visi- 
ble devil, whether in the natural desert of 
rocks and sands, or in the populous moral 
desert of selfishness and baseness — to such 
temptations are we all called. . . Our wil- 
derness is the wide world in an atheistic 
century. Our forty days are long years of 
suffering and fasting. Nevertheless to these 
also comes an end. carlyle. 

Temptation often assails the finest na- 
tures, as the pecking sparrow or destructive 
wasp attacks the sweetest and mellowest fruit, 
eschewing what is sour and crude. 



Ne'er think the victory won, 
Nor lay thine armor down ; 



Thy arduous work will not be done 
Till thou obtain the crown. 



HEATH. 




CHARLOTTE BRONTE. 



128 



As we have therefo?-e opportunity \ let us do 
good unto all men. — Eph. vi. 10. 



Do all the good you can, 
By all the means you can, 
In all the ways you can, 
In all the places you can, 
At all the times you can, 
To all the people you can, 
As long as ever you can. 



So, Christian, when thy faith is faint 
Amid the toils that throng the saint, 
Ask God that thou may'st peace impart 
Unto some other human heart ; 
And thou thy Master's joy shalt share, 
E'en while his cross thy shoulders bear. 



BLIND man and a lame man meeting 



Jrx upon the way, the lame man said, If thou 
wilt be feet unto me, then I will be eyes unto 
thee. So the blind man carrying the lame, 
and the lame guiding the blind, both arrived 
at their journey's end in a good hour. 



Let us devote ourselves anew to the serv- 
ice of good will. Let us resolve, for the 
time to come, to be considerate of all, the 
present and the absent ; to be just to all ; to 
be kindly affectioned to all. 



JOHN WESLEY. 



G. W. BETHUNE. 




^:sop. 



N. L. FROTHING HAM. 



129 



The kingdom of God is within you. — Luke 
xvii. 21. 

How far from here to heaven ? 
Not very far, my friend ; 



A single hearty step 

Will all thy journey end. 

Hold there ! Where runnest thou ? 
Know heaven is in thee ! 

Seekest thou for God elsewhere ? 
His face thou'lt never see. 



HE immortal life may be said to sur- 



1 round us perpetually. Some beams of 
its glory shine upon us in whatever is lovely, 
heroic, and virtuously happy in ourselves or 
in others. . . Heaven is in truth revealed 
to us in every pure affection of the human 
heart, and in every wise and beneficent action 
that uplifts the soul in adoration and grati- 
tude. . . The pure mind carries heaven within 
itself, and manifests that heaven to all around. 



Philamon had gone forth to see the world, 
and he had seen it ; and he learned that 
God's kingdom was not a kingdom of fanatics 
yelling for a doctrine, but of willing, loving, 



ANGELUS SELESIUS. 




CHANNING. 



obedient hearts. 



CHARLES KINGSLEY. 



Oh, thou of little faith , wherefore didst thou 
doubt ? — Matt. xiv. 31. 

The day is quenched, and the sun is fled ; 

God has forgotten the world ! 
The moon is gone, and the stars are dead ; 

God has forgotten the world ! 

J. G. HOLLAND. 

There lives more faith in honest doubt, 
Believe me, than in half the creeds. 

TENNYSON. 

" The Man he sent, 
The Prince of Life, methinks I could have loved, 
But long ago he died, and long ago 
Is gone/' 

He is not dead, he cannot go ! 
Men's faith at first was like a mastering stream, 
Like Jordan, " the descender," leaping down 
Pure from his snow, and warmed of tropic heat, 
Hiding himself in verdure — then at last 
In a Dead Sea absorbed, as faith of doubt. 
But yet the snow lies thick on Hermon's breast, 
And daily at his source the stream is born ! 
Go up — go mark the whiteness of the snow ! 
Thy faith is not thy Saviour, not thy God ! 
Though faith waste fruitless down a desert old, 
The living God is new, and he is near ! 

JEAN INGELOW. 

YOU will get out of all doubt in time. 
When you feel you are in the deepest and 
gloomiest doubt pray the prayer of despera- 
tion; cry out, " Lord, if thou dost exist, let me 
know that thou dost exist. Guide my mind 
by a way that I know not into thy truth," 
and God will deliver you. 

CHARLES KINGSLEY. 



Why art thou cast down, oh, my soul ? and 
why art thou disquieted in me ? hope thou in 
God : for I shall yet praise him for the help of 
his count 'enance. — Psalm xlii. 5. 

Day will return with a fresher boon ; 

God will remember the world ! 
Night will come with a newer moon ; 

God will remember the world ! 

J. G. HOLLAND. 

TTOPE quickens all the still parts of life, 
* * and keeps the mind awake in her most 
remiss and indolent hours. It gives habitual 
serenity and good humor ; it is a kind of 
vital heat in the soul that cheers and gladdens 
her when she does not attend to it. It makes 
pain easy and labor pleasant. 

JOSEPH ADDISON. 

All which happens through the whole 
world happens through hope. No husband- 
man would sow a grain of corn if he did not 
hope it would spring up and bring forth the 
ear. How much more we are helped on by 
hope in the way of eternal life ! 

MARTIN LUTHER. 



i3 2 



It is good for me that I have been afflicted. — 
Psalm cxix. 71. 

But all lost things are in the angels' keeping, 
Love ; 

No past is dead for us, but only sleeping, 
Love. 

The years of heaven will all earth's little pain 

Make good ; 
Together there we can begin again 



OD puts consolation only where he has 



" We little know what God is doing, and 
how can we know the way ? And we often 
think that the sorrows of the saints are sent 
for their punishment when they are sent for 
their perfection. Either way, we are greatly 
ignorant. They may need far more of puri- 
fication than we think : they may be suffering 
for an end higher than purification, for some 
end which includes purification and unknown 
mysteries besides. We forget that Christ 
suffered, and why ; and how he learned obe- 
dience, and what that obedience was." 

Be sure your sorrow is not giving you its 
best unless it makes you a more thoughtful 
person than you have ever been before. 

PHILLIPS BROOKS, 



In babyhood. 



H. H. 




MME. SWETCHINE. 



i33 



Stand therefore, having your loins girt about 
with truth, and having on the breastplate of 
righteousness, — Eph. vi. 14. 

TF there be one thing upon earth that man- 
* kind love and admire better than another 
it is a brave man — it is a man who dares look 
the devil in the face and tell him he is a 
devil. 

JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



The people know that they need in their 
representative much more than talent, namely, 
the power to make his talent trusted. They 
cannot come to their ends bv sending to con- 
gress a learned, acute, and fluent speaker if 
he be not one, who, before he was appointed 
by the people to represent them, was ap- 
pointed by Almighty God to stand for a fact 
in himself. . . emerson. 

At the bottom of a good deal , of bravery 
that appears in the world there lurks a mis- 
erable cowardice. Men will face powder 
and steel because they cannot face public 
opinion. chapin. 



134 



Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean : 
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. — 
Psalm li. 7. 

I will do or suffer what I ought. 

HERBERT. 

Sorrow is knowledge ; they who know the most 
Must mourn the deepest. 

BYRON. 

Is God less God that thou art left undone ? 
Rise, worship, bless him, in this sackcloth spun 
As in that purple ! 

E. B. BROWNING. 

THOU requirest truth in the inward parts, 
and I will thank thee for any means, 
however bitter, which thou usest to make 
me true. I want to be an honest man, 
and a right man. And, oh, joy, thou wantest 
me to be so also ! Oh, joy, that though I 
long cowardly to quench thy fire, I cannot 
do it ! Purge us therefore, O Lord, though 
it be with fire. Burn up the chaff of vanity 
and self-indulgence, of hasty prejudices, 
second-hand dogmas, husks which do not 
feed my soul, with which I cannot be content, 
of which I feel ashamed daily — and if there 
be any grains of wheat in me, any word or 
thought or power of action, which may be of 
use as seed for my nation after me, gather it, 
O Lord, into thy garner. 

CHARLES KINGSLEY. 



i3S 



Whereupon I was not disobedient unto the 
heavenly vision. — Acts xxvi. 19. 

Hast thou not glimpses in the twilight here 

Of mountains where the immortal morn prevails ? 
Comes there not through the silence to thine ear 

A gentle rustling from the morning gales, 
A murmur wafted from that glorious shore 

Of streams that water banks forever fair, 
And voices of the loved ones gone before, 

More musical in that celestial air? 



ES, He is the ground of all our good ; 



1 and all that we inadequately call our 
ideals, the inner experience that looks at us 
through the symbols of the universe, the 
better possibilities that seem to struggle 
through the material conditions of life, the 
contrite longing to be free from self and at 
peace with God — these, while they are in us, 
yet are not of us ; they are not ours, his ; nay, 
they are his very self ; first standing at the 
door to knock, and then, if the latch be lifted 
by a hospitable hand, entering to abide and 
dwell, and turning the bread and wine of life 
into a sacrament. 



I stretch forth my hands unto thee; 
my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty 
land.— Psalm cliii. 6. 



BRYANT. 




JAMES MARTINEAU. 



136 



So God created man in his own image, in the 
image of God created he him. — Gen. i. 27. 

All things are ever God's ; the shows of things 
Are of man's fantasy and warped with sin — 
God, and the things of God, immutable. 

ALLINGHAM. 

MAN'S glory consists very much in his 
capacity of being God's image, which is 

love. " 

Men are properly said to be clothed with 
authority, clothed with beauty, with curses, 
and the like. Nay, if you consider it, what 
is man himself, and his whole terrestrial life, 
but an emblem — a clothing or visible gar- 
ment for that divine me of his, cast hither, 
like a light particle, down from heaven ? 
Thus is he said also to be clothed with a 
body. CARLYLE. 

What must he be, the great Master Work- 
man, seeing that all the unselfishness, compas- 
sion, and love that are continually shining 
out in our humanity are but faint reflections 
of him ! kate w. Hamilton. 

Is not all the good in us his image ? Im- 
perfect and sinful as we are, is not all the 
foundation of our being his image ? Is not 
the sin all ours, and the life in us all God's ? 
We cannot be the creatures of God without 
partaking of his nature. geo. macdonald. 



13? 



If they persecuted me, they will also persecute 
you. — John xv. 20. 

They therefore departed from the presence of 
the council, rejoicing that they were counted 
worthy to suffer dishonor for the Name. — Acts 
v. 41 (R. V.). 

THE worst part of martyrdom is not the 
last agonizing moment : it is the wear- 
ing daily steadfastness. Men who can make 
up their minds to hold out against the torture 
of an hour have sunk under the weariness 
and the harass of small prolonged vexations. 
And there are many Christians who have the 
weight of some deep incommunicable grief 
pressing, cold as ice, upon their hearts. To 
bear that cheerfully and manfully is to be a 
martyr. There is many a Christian bereaved 
and stricken in the best hopes of life. For 
such a one to say quietly, " Father, not as I 
will, but as thou wilt," is to be a martyr. 

F. W. ROBERTSON. 

Racks and fagots soon waft the soul to 
God, stern messengers, but swift. A boy 
could bear that passage, the martyrdom of 
death. But the temptation of a long life of 
neglect and scorn and obloquy and shame 
and want and desertion by false friends ; to 
live blameless, though blamed, cut off from 
human sympathy — that is the martyrdom of 

tO-day. THEODORE PARKER. 




Tribulation worketh patience ; and patience, 
experience; and experience ' 3 hope. — Rom. v. 3, 4. 

" Be patient, oh, be patient ; go and watch the wheat 
ears grow 

So imperceptibly that ye can mark nor change nor 
throe, 

Day after day, day after day, till the ear is fully 
grown, 

And then again, day after day, till the ripened field 
is brown." 

By patience man becomes more excellent, 
Fairer than gold, clear as the firmament, 
More pure from each vile element, 
In every grace more eminent, 

To Jesus more acceptable, 
More like to saints unblamable, 
To enemies more terrible, 
And to his friends more lovable. 



ET us be only patient, patient ; and let 



^ God our Father teach his own lesson 
his own way. Let us try to learn it well, 
and learn it quickly ; but do not let us fancy 
that he will ring the school bell, and send us 
to play before our lesson is learnt. 



THOMAS A KEMPIS. 




CHARLES KING SLEW 



It takes less time to amass a fortune than 
to become heavenly-minded. 

F. W. ROBERTSON. 



i39 



Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was 
neighbor unto him that fell among thieves ? 
And he said. He that showed mercy on him. 
Then said Jesus unto him y Go thou and do like- 
wise. — Luke x. 36, 37. 

O Lord ! that I could waste my life for others, 

With no ends of my own ; 
That I could pour myself into my brothers, 

And live for them alone I 

F. W. FABER. 

WHAT is meant by our neighbor we can- 
not doubt ; it is everyone with whom 
we are brought into contact. First of all, he 
is literally our neighbor who is next to us in 
our family and household : husband to wife, 
wife to husband, parent to child, brother to 
sister, master to servant, servant to master. 
Then it is he who is close to us in our neigh- 
borhood, in our own town, in our own parish, 
in our own street. With these all true charity 
begins. To love and be kind to these is the 
very beginning of all true religion. But be- 
sides these, as our Lord teaches, it is every- 
one who is thrown across our path by the 
changes and chances of life ; he or she, who- 
soever it be, whom we have any means of 
helping — the unfortunate stranger whom we 
may meet in traveling, the deserted friend 
whom no one else cares to look after. 

DEAN STANLEY. 



First the blade, then the ear, after that the 
full corn in the ear, — Mark iv. 28. 

Then bless thy secret growth, nor catch 
At noise, but thrive unseen and dumb : 

Keep clean, bear fruit, earn life, and watch, 
Till the white-winged reapers come. 

HENRY VAUGHAN. 

- Higher yet and higher, 
Out of clouds and night, 
Nearer yet and nearer 
Rising to the light." 

MANUALS of devotion with complicated 
rules for getting on in the Christian life 
would do well sometimes to return to the sim- 
plicity of nature ; and earnest souls who are 
attempting sanctification by struggle instead 
of sanctification by faith might be spared 
much humiliation by learning the botany of 
the Sermon on the Mount. There can in- 
deed be no other principle of growth than 
this. It is a vital act. And to try to make 
a thing grow is as absurd as to help the tide 
to come in or the sun to rise. . . A boy 
not only grows without trying, but he cannot 
grow if he tries. No man by taking thought 
has ever added a cubit to his stature ; nor 
has any man by mere working at his soul ever 
approached nearer to the stature of the Lord 
Jesus. . . Christ's life unfolded itself from 
a divine germ planted centrally in his nature, 
which grew as naturally as a flower from a 

bud. DRUMMOND. 



Mag 18* 



141 



With loving kindness have I drawn thee. — 
Jer. xxxi. 3. 

Speak low to me, my Saviour, low and sweet, 
From out the hallelujahs, sweet and low, 
Lest I should fear and fall, and miss thee so, 

Who art not missed by any that entreat. 

Speak to me as to Mary at thy feet ; 

And if no precious gums my hands bestow, 
Let my tears drop like amber while I go 

In search of thy divinest voice, complete 

In humanest affection ; thus, in sooth, 
To lose the sense of losing ! As a child 

Whose song bird seeks the woods for evermore 

Is sung to, in its stead, by mother's mouth, 
Till sinking on her breast, love reconciled, 
He sleeps the faster that he wept before. 

E. B. BROWNING. 

'* O Thou, whom we are taught in faith to call 
Our Father, glad in our dear right we come 
With mind, with soul, with spirit, bringing all 

To learn accord with thee, life's perfect sum ; 
Not as a slave, but as thy child, we hear 
Thy voice, and find in perfect love no fear." 

TUST as a mother would not love a child 
J the better for its being turned into a model 
of perfection by one stroke of magic, but 
does love it the more deeply every time it 
tries to be good, so I do hope and believe 
our great Father does not wait for us to be 
good and wise to love us, but loves us, and 
loves to help us in the very thick of out- 
Struggle with sin and folly. 

JULIANA HORATIA EWING. 



142 



Blessed are the poor i?i spirit : for theirs is 
the ki?igdom of heaven. — Matt. v. 3. 

Heaven's gates are not so highly arched 
As princes' palaces. They that enter there 
Must go upon their knees. 



HE poor in spirit — the humble, teachable. 



1 simple minds that know the bounds of 
their ignorance, that know the depths of their 
own sinfulness, that can bear to have their 
faults corrected, that can look afar off and 
not claim any spiritual perfections that do 
not belong to them, that are content with 
saying, in silence and solitude, " God be 
merciful to me a sinner " — these little thought 
of men, despised often both by the religious 
and irreligious, have their place in "the king- 
dom of God," w T hich, as by rightful possession, 
is " theirs." dean Stanley. 

It is a poor, reverently devoted heart that 
carries away the comfort. Godliness is the 
humble dust of adoration that shall be lifted 
up by the hand of mercy. t. adams. 

The sufficiency of my merit is to know 
my merit is not sufficient. 



mas hccd. 




ST. AUGUSTINE. 



Aa£ 20, 



i43 



To obey is better than sacrifice.—!. Sam. 
xv. 22. 

The will of Heaven 
Be done in this and all things ! I obey. 

SHAKSPERE. 

f^vO but your duty, and do not trouble your- 
^ self whether it is in the cold or by a good 

fire. MARCUS AURELIUS. 

No man doth safely rule but he that is" 
glad to be ruled. No man doth safely rule 
but he that hath learned gladly to obey. 

THOS. A KEMPIS. 

It is the easiest thing in the world to obey 
God when he commands us to do what we 
like, and to trust him when the path is all 
sunshine. 

The real victory of faith is to trust God in 
the dark and through the dark. Let us be 
assured of this, that if the lesson and the rod 
are of his appointing, and his all-wise love 
has engineered the tunnels of trial on the 
heavenward road, he will never desert us 
during the discipline. The vital thing for 
us is not to deny and desert him. 

THEODORE L. CUYLER. 



144 



/Ifoa£ 21. 



Ye have received the Spirit of adoption, 
whereby we cry y Abba, Father. — Rom. viii. 15. 

" Dear name that binds us to the Infinite, 
That grants us heirship to a grander life, 
It holds us safe, even while we whisper it, 

And hushes into peace all sense of strife. 
Our Father cares for us, oh, restful thought, 
Oh breath of balm, with heavenly feeling fraught." 

Thou wert always our Father ! Each sun that arose 
Has done nothing through life but fresh mercies dis- 
close ; 

But we feel, while the joy of our life is laid low, 
Thou hast ne'er been so tender a Father as now. 

Faber. 



HE Father ! Can it be that " the High 



1 and Holy One who inhabiteth eternity," 
^the Lord of heaven and earth," bears to us 
this relation, reveals himself under this name, 
and that we, so weak and erring, may approach 
him with the hope of children ? 



Christianity reaches down from heaven 
this golden ladder, by which the loftiest soul 
and the lowliest intellect can begin to climb 
toward God — the ladder of the truth of God's 




CHANNING, 



paternity. 



CHAPIN. 



Our Father, who art in heaven. 



/Siba^ 22, 



i45 



Sou, go work to-day in my vineyard. — Matt. 
xxi. 28. 

Work is Heaven's best 1 

J. INGELOW. 

'Tis better for us to remain where we are 
In the lowly valley of duty and care. 
Than lonely to stray to the heights above, 
Where there's nothing to do and nothing to love. 

H. COLERIDGE. 

TT is strange that laboring men do not think 
A more of the vast usefulness of their tools, 
and take a benevolent pleasure in them on 
this account. One would think that a car- 
penter or mason, on passing a house which 
he had reared, would say to himself, " This 
work of mine is giving comfort and enjoy- 
ment every day and every hour to a family, 
and will continue to be a kindly shelter, a do- 
mestic gathering place, an abode of affection 
for a century or more after I sleep in the 
dust " ; and ought not a generous satisfaction 
to spring up at the thought ? 

CHANNING. 

Do not drudge like a galley-slave, nor do 
business in such a laborious manner as if you 
had a mind to be pitied or wondered at. 

MARCUS AURELIUS, 



H6 /Ifcas 23. 



If I do not the works of my Father, believe 
me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, 
believe the works. — John x. 37, 38. 

Assailed by scandal and the tongue of strife, 
His only answer was a blameless life. 

COWPER. 

,r Fis a kind of good deed to say well — 
And yet words are no deeds. 

SHAKSPERE. 

GOD bless and help you," falling from the 
lips of poverty, while the trembling voice, 
the glistening tears, and kindly cares attest 
the sincerity of one who has naught else on 
earth to give, falls like a benediction from 
heaven upon the recipient, and is at once a 
prayer that will reach the heart of God, and 
a deed that will be written in golden letters 
within the book of the recording angel. 

Where the power to extend substantial aid 
exists, empty expressions of good will alone 
are of no account : they are " words, mere 
words," barren, inert, and lifeless. 

R. T. WATSON. 

" If on a cold, dark night you see a man 
picking his way up a rickety pair of stairs 
where one of God's poor children lives, with 
a heavy basket on his arm, you need not stop 
him to ask if he loves the Lord ; whether he 
is an orthodox, a Catholic, or a heathen." 

GOLDEN RULE. 



/Ifcas 24. 



i47 



Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and 
afterward receive me to glory. — Psalm lxxiii. 
24. 

" Wild bird flying northward, whither thou ? 

And vessel bending southward, what thy quest ? 
Clouds of the east, with sunshine on your brow, 
Whither ! and crescent setting in the west ? " 

Still we pursue while the white day is ours ; 

The wild bird journeys northward in his strength, 
The tender clouds waste in their sunny bowers — 

One shepherd guides and gathers them at length. 

ANNIE FIELDS. 

O EAD the Book, by all means ! but the 
Book will not reveal Him. He is not in 
the Book ; he is in the heaven, which is as 
near you and me as the air we breathe, and 
out of that he must reveal himself. . . He 
is bringing you out of your first mistake and 
idolatry, aye, and through it and through all 
wild wanderings since, to know him himself, 
and speak face to face with him as a man 
speaks with his friend. 

CHARLES KINGSLEY. 

Follow thou me ; "I am the way, the truth, 
and the life. ,, Without the way there is no 
going ; without the truth there is no know- 
ing ; without the life there is no living. 

THOMAS A KEMPIS, 



148 



Whoso is wise, and will observe these things , 
even they shall understand the loving kindness of 
the Lord. — Psalm cvii. 43.. 

So, then, believe that every bird that sings, 
And every flower that stars the elastic sod, 

And every thought that happy summer brings, 
To the pure spirit, is a word of God. 



HAT inexpressible joy for me to look 



v Y up through the apple blossoms and the 
fluttering leaves, and to see God's love there ; 
to listen to the thrush that has built his nest 
among them, and to feel God's love, who 
cares for the birds, in every note that swells 
his little throat ; to look beyond to the bright 
blue depths of the sky, and feel they are a 
canopy of blessing — the roof of the house of 
my Father ! Elizabeth charles. 

How one exhales, and feels his child- 
hood coming back to him, when, emerging 
from the hard and hateful city streets, he 
sees orchards and gardens in sheeted bloom — 
plum, cherry, pear, peach, and apple, waves 
and billows of blossoms rolling over the hill- 
sides, and down through the levels ! My 
heart runs riot. This is the kingdom of 

glory, BEECHER, 



HARTLEY COLERIDGE. 




/Ifta£ 26. 



149 



Doing the will of God from the heart. — 
Eph. vi. 6. 

Thy greatness is grown, and reacheth unto 
heaven. — Daniel iv. 22. 



RUE greatness, first of all, is a thing of 



1 the heart. It is all alive with robust 
and generous sympathies. It is neither 
behind its age nor too far before it. It is up 
with its age, and ahead of it only just so far 
as to be able to lead its march. It cannot 
slumber, for activity is a necessity of its 
existence. It is no reservoir, but a fountain. 



I know of but one elevation of a human 
being, and that is elevation of soul. Without 
this it matters nothing where a man stands 
or what he possesses, and with it he towers, 
he is one of God's nobility, no matter what 
place he holds in the social scale. 



He who would write a heroic poem must 
make his whole life a heroic poem. 



Man is greater than condition, 
And where man himself bestows 

He begets and gives position 
To the gentlest that he knows. 

J. G. HOLLAND. 




ROSWELL D. HITCHCOCK. 



CHANN1NG. 



MILTON. 



Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to 
come unto me : for of such is the kingdom of 
heaven. — Matt. xix. 14. 

O ye who came that Babe to lay 
Within a Saviours arms to-day, 
Watch well and guard with careful eye 
The heir of immortality ! 

SIR H. BAKER. 

HONOR the child. Welcome into being 
the infant, with a feeling of its mysteri- 
ous grandeur, with the feeling that an immor- 
tal existence has begun, that a spirit has been 
kindled which is never to be quenched. 
Honor the child. On this principle all good 
education rests. Never shall we learn to 
train up a child till we take it in our arms, as 
Jesus did, and feel distinctly that "of such is 
the kingdom of heaven." channing. 

" Train up a child in the way he should go M 
is not so easy to do. The task is hard, 
though the text is short. And no man can 
recount the history of it. I think that the 
most wonderful book that could be written 
would be a book in which an angel should 
write all the thoughts that pass through a 
faithful mother's mind from the time that she 
first hears the cry of her child, and knows 
that it is born into the world, and rejoices in 
the midst of her griefs. . . 

H. W. BEECHER. 



We beseech you, brethren, that ye increase 
more and more ; and that ye study to be quiet. — 
i Thess. iv. 10, ii. 

Like the star 
That shines afar, 
Without haste 
And without rest, 

Let each man wheel, with steady sway, 
Round the task that rules the day, 
And do his best. 

GOETHE. 

*' Noble deeds are held in honor ; 
But the wide world sadly needs 
Hearts of patience to unravel 
The worth of common deeds." 

THE maelstom attracts more notice than 
the quiet fountain ; a comet draws more 
attention than the steady star ; but it is 
better to be the fountain than the maelstrom 
and star than comet, following out the sphere 
and orbit of quiet usefulness in which God 
places us. dr. john hall. 

It is among the ignorant, the out of the 
way, the commonplace, that the Christian's 
daily lot is thrown ; and their daily appeals 
are to Him as sacred as those which come 
more seldom and with a louder knocking 
at the gate. That Christianity should so fit 
in with the ordinary and mediocre has always 
seemed to me a proof of its crowning excel- 
lence. DORA GREENWELL. 



Let us off a- the sacrifices of praise continu- 
ally. — Heb. xiii. 15. 

Let thy day be to thy night 
A letter of good tidings ! Let thy praise 
Go up as birds go up — that, when they wake, 
Shake off the dew and soar ! 

JEAN INGELOW. 

The Christian's song of gladness is a 
psalm of gratitude, the echoes of which may 
be heard from every object around him. 
He sympathizes with all the innocent joy on 
the earth ; but he remembers that all this joy 
has a source, and he looks beyond earth and 
earthly things. He regards his happiness as 
given ; and he is grateful, and seeks to im- 
part of his abundance, and make others 
happy and cheerful and grateful. 

GREENWOOD. 

Our praises are the stairway up which 
our spirits mount in their contemplation of 
the divine perfection. They are symbols, 
poor and weak, which reveal to us more clearly 
and make us feel more deeply the perfect 
goodness of God. 

C. C. EVERETT. 



iftas 30. 



153 



Stand still and consider the wondrous works 
of God. Dost thou know the balancing of the 
clouds , the wondrous works of him which is per- 
fect in knowledge? — Job xxxvii. 14, 16. 

I can hear these violets chorus 
To the sky's benediction above ; 



And we all are together lying 
On the bosom of Infinite Love. 

Oh, the peace at the heart of nature ! 

Oh, the light that is not of day ! 
Why seek it afar forever 

"When it cannot be lifted away? 



HAT is not an enviable nature that hears 



1 no strange melodies hinting of heaven 
through the marches of the year ; that sees 
no glorious signs hung out on earth and sky 
of an infinite love that is never forgetful and 
never unkind ; that pauses not with reverent 
spirit to ponder the lesson that is told in 
grass and tree and flower ; and that feels 
no benediction in the bright air and palpitat- 
ing sky. He may be just to his neighbor, 
industrious, and virtuous ; but he does not 
understand the meaning of Jesus in the fields 
of Galilee, pointing to the birds and lilies, 
and telling of our Father's care. 



W. C. GANNETT. 




HORATIO N. POWERS. 



.fl&ag 31. 



Whatsoever ye do , do it heartily, as to the Lord, 
and not unto wen —Col. iii. 23. 

" There is no end to the sky, 

And the stars are even-where, 
And time is eternity, 

And here is over there ; 
And the common deeds of the common day 
Are ringing bells in the far-away/' 

A S evil is developed and strengthened by 
little faults, so Christian character is 
made by doing little kindnesses and following 
God in little things. 

FRED H. RICHARDSON. 

Let us set our affection on things above, 
not on things on the earth ; for, you see, a 
life spent in brushing clothes and washing 
crockery and sweeping floors — a life which 
the proud of earth would have treated as the 
dust under their feet ; a life spent at the 
clerk's desk ; a life spent in the narrow shop ; 
a life spent in the laborer's hut — may yet be a 
life so ennobled by God's loving mercy that for 
the sake of it a king might gladly yield his 
crown. canon farrar. 

For who hath despised the day of small 
things ? — Zech. iv. 10. 



June t. 



Now learn a parable of the fig tree : When 
his branch is yet tender, and patteth forth 
leaves, ye know that summer is nigh. — Matt. 
xxiv. 32. 

As the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as 
the garde?i causeth the things that are sown 
in it to spring forth, so the Lord God will cause 
righteousness and praise to spring forth before 
all the nations. — Isa. lxi. 11. 

I cannot tell what you say, green leaves, 
I cannot tell what you say ; 
But I know that there is a spirit in you, 
And a word in you this day. 

I cannot tell what you say, rosy rocks, 

I cannot tell what you say ; 
But I know that there is a spirit in you, 

And a word in you this day. 

I cannot tell what you say, brown streams, 

I cannot tell what you say ; 
But I know that in you too a spirit doth live, 

And a word doth speak this day. 

Oh, green is the color of faith and truth 
And rose the color of love and youth, 

And brown of the fruitful clay. 
Sweet earth is faithful and fruitful and young, 
And her bridal day shall come ere long, 
And you shall know what the rocks and the 
streams 

And the whispering woodlands say. 

CHARLES KINGSLEY. 



i56 



5une 2, 



Then shall the righteous shine forth as the 
sun. — Matt. xiii. 43. 

The earth was green, the sky was blue ; 

I saw and heard one sunny morn 
A skylark hanging between the two, 

A ringing speck above the corn ; 

A stage below, in gay accord, 

White butterflies danced on the wing, 

And still the singing skylark soared, 
And silent sank and soared to sing. 



HE next morning he awoke at early 



A dawn, hearing the birds at his window. 
He rose and went out. The air was clear 
and fresh as a new-made soul. Bars of 
mottled cloud were bent across the eastern 
quarter of the sky, which lay like a great 
ethereal ocean ready for the launch of the 
ship of glory that was now gliding toward its 
edge. The clouds that formed the shore of 
the upper sea were already burning from saf- 
fron into gold. A moment more, and the first 
day of his new life would be begun. He 
watched, and it came. The wellspring of 
day, fresh and exuberant, as if now first from 
the holy will of the Father of Lights, gushed 
into the basin of the world, and the world 
was more glad than tongue or pen can tell. 
The supernal light alone, dawning upon the 
human heart, can exceed the marvel of such 
a sunrise. george macdonald. 



CHRISTINA ROSSETTI. 




June 3. 



x 57 



In the morning ye shall see the glory of the 
Lord. — Ex. xvi. 7. 

Gaze on, gaze on, thou eager boy, 
For earth is lovely, life is grand ; 

Yet from the boundary of the plain 

Thy faded eyes may turn again 
Wistfully to the morning land. 

How lovely, then, o'er wastes of toil 

That long left mountain height appears ! 

How soft the lights and shadows glide ! 

How the rough places glorified 

Transcend whole leagues of level years ! 

And standing by the sea of death, 

With anchor weighed, and sails unfurled, 

Blessed the man before whose eyes 

The very hills of paradise 

Glow, colored like his morning world. 

MRS. D. M. CRAIK, 

AND shall life itself be less beautiful than 
one of its days ? Do not believe it, 
voune brother. Men call the shadow thrown 
upon the universe where their own dusky 
souls come between it and the eternal sun, 
life, and then mourn that it should be less 
bright than the hopes of their childhood. 
Keep thou thy soul translucent, that thou 
may'st never see its shadow ; at least never 
abuse thyself with the philosophy which calls 
that shadow life. Or rather would I say, 
become thou pure in heart, and thou shalt 
see God, whose vision alone is life. 

GEORGE MACDOXALD, 



'58 



June 4, 



Be ye kind one to another, — Eph. iv. 32. 
By love serve one another. — -Gal. v. 13. 

" It was only a glad good morning 
As she passed along the way ; 
But it spread the morning's glory 
Over the livelong day." 

What is music if sweet words 
Rising from tender fancies be not so ? 
Methinks there is no sound as gentle — none — 
Not even the south wind young, when first he comes 
Wooing the lemon flowers, for whom he leaves 
The coasts of Basac : not melodious springs, 
Tho' heard in the stillness of their native hills ; 
Not the rich viol, trump, cymbal, nor horn, 
Guitar, nor cittern, nor the pining flute 
Are half so sweet as tender human words. 



T EXPECT to pass through this world but 
* once. If, therefore, there be any kindness 
I can show to any fellow-being, let me not 
defer or neglect it, for I will not pass this 



When you have done a kindness, and 
your neighbor is the better for it, why need 
you be so foolish as to look any farther and 
gape for reputation and requital ? 



Men are born to be serviceable to one 
another ; therefore either reform the world 



BARRY CORNWALL. 



way again. 



QUAKER SAVING. 



MARCUS AURELIUS. 



or bear with it ! 



MARCUS AURELIUS. 



3-une 5. 



'59 



A righteous man regardeth the life of his 
beast, but the tender mercies of the wicked are 
cruel. — Prov. xii. 10. 

For every beast of the forest is mine, and the 
cattle upon a thousand hills. — Psalm 1. io. 

He prayeth well who loveth well 
Both man and bird and beast ; 

He prayeth best who loveth best 
All things both great and small : 

For the dear God who loveth us, 
He made and loveth all. 

S. T. COLERIDGE. 

A THEISM destroys magnanimity . . . for 
take an example of a dog, and mark 
what a generosity and courage he will put on 
when he finds himself maintained by a man, 
who to him is instead of a God. . . So man 
when he resteth and assureth himself upon 
divine providence and favor gathereth a 
force and faith which human nature in itself 
could not attain. bacon. 

Hast thou cattle ? Have an eye to them. 
— Ecclus. vii. 22. 



I would give nothing for that man's 
religion whose very dog and cat are not the 
better for it Rowland hill. 



i6o 



5une 6* 



Through faith we understand. — Heb. xi. 3. 
We walk by faith , not by sight. — 2 Cor. 
v. 7. 

The senses folding thick and dark 

Above the stifled soul within, 
We guess diviner things beyond, 
And yearn to them with yearning fond ; 
We strike out blindly to a mark 

Believed in, but not seen. 

E. B. BROWNING. 

It is not reason makes faith hard, but life. 

JEAN INGELOW. 

Thro' silence and the trembling stars 
Comes faith from tracts no feet have trod ! 

TENNYSON. 

IT is easier to maintain what shall look like 
* faith and dependence in the sun than in 
the shade, but real faith and dependence are 
better tested and better grown in the shade 
than in the sun. 

MRS. GILBERT ANN TAYLOR. 

Faith is the very heroism and enterprise 
of intellect. Faith is not a passivity, but a 
faculty. Faith is power, the material of 
effect. Faith is a kind of winged intellect. 
The great workmen of history have been men 
who believed like giants. 

CHARLES H. P ARKHURST, 



June 7* 



i-6 1 



/ have loved thee with an everlasting love j 
therefore with loving kindness have I drawn 
thee. — Jer. xxxi. 3. 



Grander than ocean's story, 

Or songs of forest trees — 
Purer than breath of morning - , 

Or evening's gentle breeze — 
Clearer than mountain echoes 

Ring out from peaks above — 
Rolls on the glorious anthem 

Of God's eternal love. 



For the love of God is broader 

Than the measure of man's mind ; 
And the heart of the Eternal 

Is most wonderfully kind. 
If our love were but more simple 

We should take him at his word, 
And our lives would be all sunshine 

In the sweetness of our Lord. 



OVE is the greatest thing that God can 



^ give us, for himself is love ; and it is 
the greatest thing we can give to God, for 
it will also give ourselves, and carry with it 
all that is ours. The apostle calls it the 
bond of perfection ; it is the old, and it is 
the new ; it is the great commandment, and it 
is all the commandments ; for it is the fulfill- 
ing of the law. jeremy taylor. 



W. F. SHERWIN. 



F. W. FABER. 




i6z 



June 8. 



Be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon 
the mountains of spices, — Cant. viii. 14. 

Oh, white young souls, strain upward, upward still, 
Even to the heavenly source of purity. 

L. MORRIS. 

Warm whispering through the slender olive leaves 

Came to me a gentle sound, 

Whispering of a secret found 
In the clear sunshine 'mid the golden sheaves ! 
Said it was sleeping for him in the morn, 

Called it gladness, called it joy, 

Drew me on — " Come hither, boy " — 
To where the blue wings rested on the corn. 
I thought the gentle sound had whispered true, 

Thought the little heaven mine, 

Leaned to clutch the thing divine, 
And saw the blue wings melt within the blue. 

GEORGE ELIOT. 

TTOW beautiful is youth — early manhood, 
* ' early womanhood — how wonderfully fair! 
What freshness of life, cleanness of blood, 
purity of breath ! What hopes ! There is 
nothing too much for the young maid and man 
to put into their dream, and in their prayer 
to hope to put in their day. Oh, young men 
and women! there is no picture of ideal excel- 
lence of manhood and womanhood that I ever 
draw that seems too high, too beautiful for 
young hearts. Theodore parker. 



5une 9* 



163 



Whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and 
the gospel's, the same shall save it. — Mark viii. 

35. 

He might have built a palace at a word 

Who sometimes had not where to lay his head ; 
Time was, and he who nourished crowds with bread 

Would not one meal unto himself afford. 

Oh, self-denying love, which felt alone 
For needs of others — never for its own ! 

TRENCH. 

THE meek, the disinterested, the unselfish, 
those who think little of themselves and 
much of others — who think of the public good 
and not of their own — who rejoice in good 
done, not by themselves, but by others, by 
those whom they dislike as well as by 
those whom they love — these shall gain far 
more than they lose ; they shall " inherit the 
earth" and its fullness. dean Stanley. 

The Christian woman who can reflect 
upon a laborious life of domestic duty looks 
back upon a scene of true virtue, and if in 
order to perform the whole of her allotted 
task she has been obliged to repress a taste 
for pursuits more intellectual, the character of 
magnanimity is inscribed upon her conduct 
however retired, or in human estimation in- 
significant, may have been the daily exercises 
to which she was appointed. 

MRS. GILBERT ANN TAYLOR. 



164 



5une 10* 



In the beginning God created the heaven and 
the earth. — Gen. i. 1. 

All things were made by him : and without 
him was not anything made that was made. — 
John i. 3. 

One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, 
and a thousand years as one day. — 2 Peter 



Oh, marvelous credulity of man ! 

If God indeed kept secret, couldst thou know 
Or follow up the mighty Artisan 

Unless he willed it so ? 

How would it make the weight and wonder less 
If, lifted from immortal shoulders down, 

The worlds were cast on seas of emptiness, 
In realms without a crown ? 



EOLOGY gives us a key to the patience 



There can be no real conflict between 
science and the Bible — between nature 
and the Scriptures — the two books of the 
great Author. Both are revelations made by 
him to man : the earlier telling of God-made 
harmonies coming up from the deep past, and 
rising to their height when man appeared ; 
the latter teaching man's relations to his 
'Maker, and speaking of loftier harmonies in 
the eternal future. dana. 



iii. 8. 



JEAN INGELOW. 




HOLLAND. 



5une tt. 



The path of the just is as the shining light, 
that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. 
— Prov. iv. 1 8. 

" The smallest bark on life's tumultuous ocean 
Will leave a track behind for evermore ; 
The slightest wave of influence set in motion 
Extends and widens to the eternal shore." 

Not myself, but the truth that in life I have spoken, 
Not myself, but the seed that in life I have sown — 

Shall pass on to ages, all about me forgotten, 

Save the truth I have spoken and the work I have 
done. bonar. 

'TpHE serene, silent beauty of a holy life is 



A the most powerful influence in the world 
next to the might of the spirit of God." 

Every one of us casts a shadow. There 
hangs about us a sort of penumbra — a strange 
indefinable something — which we call per- 
sonal influence, which has its effect on every 
other life on which it falls. It goes with us 
wherever we go. It is not something we can 
have when we want to have it, and then lay 
aside when we will, as we lay aside a garment. 
It is something that always pours out from 
our life, like light from a lamp, like heat from 
a flame, like perfume from a flower. 




J. R. MILLER. 



i66 



June \2. 



Leaving the principles of the doctrine of 
Christ, let us go on unto perfection. — Heb. vi. i. 

Thou who canst think as well as feel, 
Mount from the earth ! Aspire ! Aspire ! 

WORDSWORTH. 

A man's best things are nearest him, 

Lie close about his feet, 
It is the distant and the dim 
That we are sick to greet ; 

For flowers that grow our hands beneath 

We struggle and aspire — 
Our hearts must die except they breathe 

The air of fresh desire. 

HOUGHTON. 

WE should never be content. There is 
always something to alter, to abandon, 
or to pursue, and in that honest, earnest work 
which our consciences approve we shall 
find neither room nor time nor inclination 
for the idle and selfish spirit of dissatisfac- 
tion which paralyzes our powers, destroys our 
happiness, and renders us unable to bless or 
to help our fellow-men." 

The voice of our whole nature properly 
interpreted is a cry after higher existence. 
The restless activity of life is but a pressing" 
forward toward a fullness of good not to be 
found on earth, and indicates our destination 
for a state more brightly beautiful than we 
now can conceive. channing. 



June 13. 



167 



Forgetting those things which are behind, and 
reaching forth unto those things which are 
before, — Phil. iii. 13. 

I cannot soar into the heights you show, 
Nor dive among the deeps that you reveal ; 

But it is much that high things are to know, 
That deep things are to feel. 

JEAN INGELOW. 

PROGRESS seems to me indispensable as 
* an evidence of being led by the spirit of 
God. I need no assurance of the certainty 
of the promises. I know that a good work 
begun shall be carried on ; but that is no 
consolation till I feel that it is begun. 

MRS. GILBERT ANN TAYLOR. 

A true Church will always be healing the 
hurt of sin, always comforting the afflicted, 
always taking away the sting from death, 
and mainly in the same way ; but it will vary 
its thought and teaching and word accord- 
ing to the unfolding phases of life. We are 
in an unfolding world, and the Church must 
unfold along with it. That this has not been 
freely done in the past has been the tragedy 
both of the Church and the world. A sta- 
tionary Church and a moving world means 
fatality for both. t. t. hunger. 



June 14, 



Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father 
which is in heaven is perfect. — Matt. v. 48. 

So to the heart that knows thy love, O Purest ! 

There is a temple, sacred evermore ; 
And all the Babel of life's angry voices 

Dies in hushed stillness at the peaceful door. 

H. B. stowe. 




HE aim if reached or not makes great 
the life." 



There is no double standard. There is 
nowhere and at no time any easing of the 
requirement. There is no half allegiance. 
There is no partial obedience. . . We are 
prone to imagine that there is a higher, purer 
life within our reach : that it is nobler not to 
love the pleasant things of earth, while yet 
to love them is not sinful. This is utter con- 
fusion of moral ideas. Nothing less than the 
best that we see and know is required of any 
one of us. Nothing more than the best that 
we see and know is possible to any one of us. 
There is no second best in morals. 

MARY EMILY CASE. 

Not in liberating nations, not in saving 
worlds, does our work consist, but in living 
to be perfect, as God is perfect, in unwearied 
activity, in humbly walking before God. By 
making these attributes our own we become 
children of the Highest. furness. 



3-une is. 



169 



Pray without ceasing. — 1 Tkess. v. 17. 

A prayer in an hour of pain, 

Begun in an undertone, 
Then lowered, as it would fain 

Be heard by the heart alone ! 
A throb when the soul is entered 

By a light that is lit above, 
Where the God of Nature has centered 

The beauty of love — 
The world is wide — these things are small, 
They may be nothing, but they are all. 



HEE mustna undervally prayer. Prayer 



A mayna bring money, but it brings us 
what no money can buy — a power to keep 
from sin, and be content with God's will, 
whatever he may please to send. 



Dear friend, you are a prince of blood. 
You are the son, beloved, of the Almighty 
Power who rules this world and carries it on 
to-day. You can and will rule body and 
mind with absolute control if you choose. 
If you wish and choose you will be in abso- 
lute confidence with your Father, and in the 
closest relations with him. Tell him every- 
thing ; ask advice in all difficulty ; thank 
him in all success ; come back to him in all 
failure. You will use his almighty power 
then for the sway of mind and body. You 
will be fellow-workmen together with him. 



HOUGHTON. 




GEORGE ELIOT. 



E. E. HALE. 



June \6. 



And he is the head of the body y the Church, — 
Col. i. 18. 

THE CHURCH FLOORE. 

Mark you the floore ? That square and speckled stone 
Which looks so firm and strong 

Is PATIENCE. 

And th'other, black and grave, wherewith each one 
Is checkered all along 

HUMILITY. 

The gentle rising, which on either hand, 
Leads to the quire above, 

Is CONFIDENCE. 

But the sweet cement which in one sure band 
Ties the whole frame is love 

And CHARITY. 
Hither sometimes Sinne steals and stains 
The marble's neat and curious veins ; 
But all is cleansed when the marble weeps. 

Sometimes Death, puffing at the doore, 

Blows all the dust about the floore ; 
But while he thinks to spoil the room, he sweeps. 

Blest be the Architect whose art 

Could build so strong in a weak heart. 

GEORGE HERBERT. 

There is a Church within the Church. 

AUSTIN PHELPS. 

'"pHERE is a beauty and a safety in pre- 
* serving a well-defined boundary between 
the Church and the world. It should be 
visible to which you belong. 

MRS. GILBERT ANN TAYLOR. 



5une \7. 



171 



Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy 
mother ! And from that hour that disciple 
took her unto his own hot?te. — John xix. 27. 

God hides himself within the love 

Of those whom we love best ; 
The smiles and tones that make our homes 

Are shrines by him possessed. 

W. C. GANNETT. 

Oh, near ones, dear ones, you in whose right hands 
Our own rests calm ; whose faithful hearts all day 

Wide open wait till back from distant lands 

Thought, the tired traveler, wends his homeward 
way ! 

Helpmates and hearthmates, gladdenersof gone years, 

Tender companions of our serious days, 
Who color with your kisses, smiles, and tears 

Life's worn web woven over wonted ways — 
Oh, shut the world out from the heart you cheer ! 

Tho' small the circle of your smiles may be, 
The world is distant, and your smiles are near, 

This makes you more than all the world to me ! 

LYTTON. 

THE sweetest and happiest homes — homes 
to which men in weary life look back 
with yearnings too deep for tears ; homes 
whose recollections linger round our man- 
hood like light and the sunshine and the 
sweet air, into which no base things can in- 
trude — are homes where brethren dwell to- 
gether in unity: where, because all love God, 
all love their brothers also; where, because 
all are very dear to all, each is dearer to each 
than to himself. canon farrar. 



172 



3-une !$♦ 



Take therefore 110 thought for the morrow; 
for the morrow shall take thought for the things 
of itself . — Matt. vi. 34. 

" Only one day ; 
To-morrow's care 

To-morrow, if it come, shall bear." 

11 So for to-morrow and its needs 
I do not pray ; 
But keep me, guide me, love me, Lord, 
Just for to-day. n 

WHAT is it that so often makes youth 
a season of restless struggle and the 
heart of manhood so hard and cold ? What 
is it that makes so many strenuous men grow 
old before their time ? It is the burden of 
careful anxiety for future possibilities which 
no to-morrow ever brings ! I tell you, 
brethren, more than half the cares of life are 
cares of cowardly anticipation ; and the 
worst of it is that those cares for imaginary 
troubles of to-morrow often unman us and 
disqualify us for the duties of to-day. 

SAMUEL SMITH HARRIS. 

God does not give grace until the hour of 
trial comes. But when it does come the 
amount of grace and the nature of the special 
grace required is vouchsafed. Do not per- 
plex thyself with what is needed for future 
emergencies ; to-morrow will bring its prom- 
ised grace along with to-morrow's trials. 

J. R. MACDUFF. 



Suite \9. 



x 73 



Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place. — 
Psalm xc. i. 

" For the hidden scroll overwritten with one dear name 
adored — 

For the heavenly in the human, the Spirit in the 
Word— 

For the token of Thy presence, within, above, abroad, 
For thine own great gift of being, I thank thee, oh, 
my God." 

I WONDER how many of you have any 
actual dwelling place. 

When your mortal roof crumbles where 
will you hie for shelter ? There are threaten- 
ing perils that prowl around your tent and 
jeer at your fancied security. You need a 
better home than the one which now covers 
you ; and this, our native need, is aggravated 
by that fatal malady of sin which has fastened 
upon us. We are sick and hurt, and this 
makes a dwelling place necessary, where we 
may have healing and nursing. It is the 
office of the Gospel to reveal to you such a 
dwelling ; and our blessed Lord declares that 
he is the door of it. " By me, if any man 
enter in, he shall be saved." Behind him 
stands the Psalmist saying, u What time I am 
afraid I will retire into thee." And by his 
side another takes up the same strain : " Be- 
cause thou hast made the Lord, who is my 
refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation, 
there shall no evil befall thee." 

J. G. VAN SLYKE. 



174 



3-une 20. 



In him we /ire, and move, and have our being, 
— Acts xvii. 28. 

Thou knowest me altogether ; I knew not 

Thy likeness till thou mad'st it manifest. 
There is no world but is thy heaven, no spot 

Remote ; creation leans upon thy breast ; 
Thou art beyond all stars, yet in my heart 

Wonderful whisperings hold thy creatures dumb. 
I need not search afar ; to me thou art 

Father, Redeemer, and Renewer. Come ! 

JEAN ENGELOW. 

Thou art the life ; the rending tomb 
Proclaims thy conquering arm ; 

And those who put their trust in thee 
Nor death nor hell shall harm. 

G. W. DOANE. 

IWADNA lat sic a thought come intil my 
heid, Robert, sae lang as I kenned I 
cudna draw breath nor wag tongue wantin' 
him, for in him we leeve an' muv, air hae oor 
bein'! Gien he be the life o' me. what for 
sud I trible mysel' aboot that life ? " 

GEORGE MACDONALD. 

The Infinite Goodness is not far off, but 
near us. . . The evening shade, the guarded 
sleep, the morning resurrection, every bounty 
that falls from heaven, everv bountv that 
springs from earth, every loving heart that 
blesses us, every sacred example that wins 
us, all these are the revelation, the mani- 
fested love of the one, all-holy, all-perfect, 
whom to know is life, dr. dewey. 



June 21, 



i7S 



Use not to make any manner of lie : for the 
custom thereof is not good, — Ecclus. vii. 13. 

Whate'er you think, whate'er you do, 
Whate'er you purpose or pursue — 
It may be small, but must be true. 

IDA HAHN-HAHN. 

Dare to be true, nothing can need a lie ; 

A fault which needs it most grows two thereby. 

GEORGE HERBERT. 

CXAMINE your words well and you will 
. find that even when you have no motive 
to be false it is a very hard thing to say the 
exact truth even about your own immediate 
feelings — much harder than to say something 
fine about them which is not the exact truth. 

GEORGE ELIOT. 

It is only when one is thoroughly true 
that there can be purity and freedom. 
Falsehood always avenges itself. 

AUERBACH. 

Liars are the cause of all the sins and 
crimes in the world. epictetus. 

It is a perilous thing to separate feeling 
from action, to have learnt to feel rightly 
without acting rightly. Truth is not to be 
Contemplated, but to be done. 

F. W r . ROBERTSON, 



i 7 6 



June 22. 



Have you suffered so many things in lain? — 
Gal. iii. 4. 

We did amiss when we did wish it gone 
And over ; sorrows humanize our race ; 
Tears are the showers that fertilize this world, 
And memory of things precious keepeth warm 
The heart that once did hold them. 

JEAN INGELOW. 

Grief may be joy misunderstood. 

E„ B. BROWNING. 

" Is it raining, little flower? 

Be glad of rain ; 
Too much sun would wither thee — 

'Twill shine again. 
The sky is very black, 'tis true,. 
But just behind it shines the blue."' 

GOD washes the eyes by tears until they 
can behold the invisible land where tears 
shall come no more. O Love ! O Affliction ! 
ye are the guides that show us the way 
through the great airy space where our loved 
ones walked. God teaches us while ye: our 
sorrow is wet to follow on and find our dear 
ones in heaven. h. w. beecher. 

We often live under a cloud, and it is well 
for us that we should do so. Uninterrupted 
sunshine would parch our hearts ; we want 
shade and rain to cool and refresh them. 

HARE. 



June 23* 



i77 



To whom shall we go ? Thou hast the words 
of eternal life. — John vi. 68. 

Oh, word of God incarnate ! 

Oh, wisdom from on high ! 
Oh, truth unchanged, unchanging ! 

Oh, light of our dark sky ! 
We praise thee for the radiance 

That from the hallowed page, 
A lantern to our footsteps, 

Shines on from age to age. 



God has other words for other worlds, 

But for this world the word of God is Christ. 



OU never get to the end of Christ's 



1 words. There is something in them 
always behind. They pass into proverbs — 
they pass into laws — they pass into doc- 
trines — they pass into consolations ; but they 
never pass away, and, after all the use that is 
made of them they are still not exhausted. 



The precepts of Jesus are the essential 
element of his religion. Regard these as 
your rule of life, and you build your house 
upon a rock. Live them out indeed, and 
you have entered the kingdom of heaven — 
you even now enter it. channing. 



how. 



H. HAMILTON KING. 




DEAN STANLEY. 



178 



June 2-L 



He that his slow) to anger is better than the 
mighty. — Pro v. xvi. 32. 

" Prune thou thy words, the thoughts control 
That o'er thee swell and throng ; 
They will condense within thy soul, 
And change to purpose strong," 

REST not in an ovation, but in a triumph 
over thy passions. Let anger walk hang- 
ing down the head ; let malice go manacled 
and envy fettered after thee. Behold within 
thee the whole train of thy trophies, not with- 
out thee. Chain up the unruly legion of thy 
breast, lead thine own captivity captive, and 
be Caesar within thyself. 

SIR THOMAS BROWNE. 

The youngest among us are preparing an 
Indian summer of peace or laying the founda- 
tions of an unhappy old age. It is a long 
look ahead, but it is inevitable ; unless we 
mellow and soften and ripen with years, un- 
less we deepen the channel of the spiritual 
nature, unless we exercise a noble self-con- 
trol and live for pure, high, generous aims, 
there can be no Indian summer for the soul. 
The aftermath is gathered from all that 
is gone before. . . We think less than we 
should of the old men and women we are to 
be, if it is God's purpose to let us go down 
the slope of life. Day by day we should seek 
to hive a little mellow sunshine for our 
Indian summer. Christian Register. 



5une 25. 



179 



The race is not to the swift \ nor the battle to 
the strong. — Ecclus. ix. 11. 

It may be hard to gain, and still 

To keep a lowly steadfast heart ; 
Yet he who loses has to fill 

A harder and a truer part. 
Glorious it is to wear the crown 

Of a deserved and pure success ; 
He who knows how to fail has won 

A crown whose luster is not less. 

ADELAIDE PROCTOR. 

From death comes light, from pain beatitude. 
Chide not at loss, for out of loss comes gain ; 
Chide not at grief, for 'tis the soul's best food. 

BUCHANAN. 

QUCCESS at first is dangerous, and defeat 
^ an excellent medicine for testing people's 
honesty — for setting them earnestly to work 
to see what they want, and what are the best 
methods of attaining it. 

CHARLES KINGSLEY. 

He that has never known adversity is but 
half acquainted with others or with himself. 
Constant success shows us "but one side of the 
world, for as it surrounds us with friends 
who will tell us only our merits, so it silences 
those enemies from whom alone we can learn 
our defects. colton. 

" He loseth nothing that loseth not God/' 



iSo 



June 2o. 



Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord ? 
or zi'ho shall stand in his holy place ? He that 
hath clean hands and a pure heart.— Psalii 
xxiv. 3, 4. 

I would rather take my part 
With God's dead, who afford to walk in white, 
Yet spread his glory, than keep quiet here, 
And gather up my feet from every step 
For fear to soil my gown in so much dust. 

E. B. BROWNING. 

/^ERTAINLY as the open eye drinks in 
the light do the pure in heart see God. 
And he that lives truly feels him a presence 
not to be put by. Theodore parker. 

How does Jesus make men pure ? He 
made himself one with our human nature 
that he might heal and bless it through its 
contact with his divinity. He folded it 
around his eternal presence. He made it 
his own. He made it a power which could 
quicken and restore us ; and then by the 
gift of his spirit he bound us to it, he robed 
us in it ; and henceforth Christian humanity 
became conscious of a presence before which 
the unclean spirit cannot but shrink away. 

CANON LIDDON. 



June 27. 



181 



And why beholdest thou the ?note that is in thy 
brother s eye, but considereth not the beam that is 
in thine own eye? — Matt. vii. 3. 

How shall we judge of their present, we who have 
never seen 

That which is past forever, and that which might have 
been ? 

Measuring by ourselves unwise indeed are we ! 
Measuring what we know by what we can hardly see. 



N the whole, the outlook is perfectly 



awful when one sees the mountains of 
rubbish which have to be cleared before 
people can be made to understand their 
Bible and prayer book — and still more awful 
when one feels, as I do, that I have just as 
much dirt and dust to get out of my own 
brain and heart before I can see to take the 
mote out of my brother's eye. 



Make sure that however good you may be 
you have faults, that however dull you may 
be you can find out what they are, and that 
however slight they may be you would better 
make some patient effort to get quit of them. 



F. R. HAVERGAL. 




CHARLES KINGSLEY. 



RUSKIN. 



I&2 



5une 28. 



This is the way, walk ye in it. — Is a. xxx. 21. 

Does the road wind up hill all the way ? 

Yes, to the very end. 
Will the day's journey take the whole day long ? 

From morn to night, my friend. 

CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI. 

" We, dearest, who in life's rough path 

Walk laden heavily, 
Should ever face the light, so that, 

Wherever we may be, 
The heavy burden which we bear 

Its shadow dim may cast 
Not on our forward steps, but on 

The portion we have passed." 

r~\ LORD, thou art the way, the truth, and 
the life ! in whom is no darkness, error, 
vanity, or death — the light without which 
there is darkness, the way without which 
there is wandering, the truth without which 
there is error, the life without which there is 
death ; say, Lord, " Let there be light," and I 
shall see light and eschew darkness ; I shall 
see the way and avoid wandering ; I shall see 
the truth and shun error ; I shall see life and 
escape death. st. augustine. 

If the way to heaven be narrow, it is not 
long, and if the gate be strait, it opens into 
endless life. bishop beveridge. 



June 20, 



Come unto me all ye that la dor and are heavy 
laden and I will give you rest. — Matt. xi. 28. 

Rest is not quitting the busy career ; 
Rest is the fitting of self to one's sphere : 
'Tis loving- and serving the highest and best ; 
'Tis onward unswerving, and this is true rest. 

GOETHE. 

Absence of occupation is not rest. 

cowper. 

« A DISCIPLINED mind in a weak body is 
hampered. How much better to be in 
a spiritual body and be able to do what is 
worth the doing. We work toilsomely here ; 
there exertion is so sweet that it is called rest ; 
there the spirit breathes through us and we 
are satisfied." 

Within every healing shadow is God him- 
self. ROBERT COLLYER. 

The world proposes rest by the removal of 
a burden. The Redeemer gives rest by giv- 
ing us the spirit and power to bear the bur- 
den. The rest of Christ is not that of torpor, 
but of harmony ; it is not refusing the 
struggle, but conquering in it ; not resting 
from duty, but finding rest in duty. 

F. W. ROBERTSON. 



June 30. 



Therefore all things whatsoei 'Quid 
that men should do to you, do ye even so to them. 
— Matt. vii. 12. 

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless 
them that eurse you, do good to them that hate 
you, and pray for them which despitefully use 
you and persecute you. — Matt. v. 44. 

Be noble ! and the nobleness that lies 
In other men, sleeping, but never dead, 
Will rise in majesty to meet thine own. 

LOWELL. 

AXE sure way to get into heaven, for a 
day at least, is to do a kind act to some- 
one who does not like you. 

M. Iff. POMEROY. 

May I tell you why it seems to me a good 
thing for us to remember a wrong that has 
been done us? That we may forgive it. 

DICKENS. 

If others have treated us ill, called us 
unholy names, and mocked at us, let us for- 
give it all here and now, and help them also 
to forget and outgrow that temper which 
bade them treat us so. A kind answer is 
fittest rebuke to an unkind word. 

THEODORE PARKER. 



5ulg 1, 



OVER THE MOUNTAINS HIGH. 

What shall I see if I ever go 

Over the mountains high ? 
Now I can see but the peaks of snow 
Crowning the cliffs where the pine trees grow, 
Waiting and longing to rise 
Nearer the beckoning skies. 

The eagle is rising far away 

Over the mountains high, 
Rowing along in the radiant day 
With mighty strokes to his distant prey : 

Where he will, swooping downward ; 

Where he will, sailing onward. 

Apple tree, longest thou not to go, 

Over the mountains high ? 
Gladly thou growest in summer's glow, 
Patiently waitest through wiper's snow ; 

Though birds on thy brrrches swing 
Thou knowest not what they sing. 

Birds with your chattering, why did you come 
Over the mountains high ? 



5uls t. 



Beyond in a sunnier land ye could roam, 
And nearer to heaven could build your home. 
Why have you come to bring 
Longing without your wing? 

Shall I, then, never, never flee 

Over the mountains high ? 
Rocky walls, will ye always be 
Prisons, until ye are tombs, for me — 
Until I tie at your feet 
Wrapped in my winding-sheet? 

Away ! I will away, far away, 

Over the mountains high ; 
Here I am sinking lower each day, 
Though my spirit has chosen the loftiest way ; 
Let her in freedom fly, 
Not beat on the walls and die ! 

Once, I know, I shall journey far 
Over the mountains high, 

Lord, is thy door already ajar ? 

Dear is the home where my loved ones are ; 
But bar it awhile for me, 
And help me to long for thee. 

B. BJORNSON. 



Jutg 2. 



187 



Rejoice, oh, young man, in thy youth ; and let 
thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth. — 
Eccl. xi. 9. 

He that keepeth the law, happy is he. — Pro v. 
xxix. 18. 

While I sought Happiness she fled 

Before me constantly ; 
Weary. I turned to duty's path 

And Happiness sought me, 
Saying, " I walk this road to-day; 

I'll bear thee company." 

H. R. ELIOT. 

A /[ AN is glorious and happy not by what 
* * he has, but what he is. channing. 

I used to think it was great to disregard 
happiness, to press to a high goal, careless, 
disdainful of it. But now I see that there is 
nothing so great as to be capable of happi- 
ness, to pluck it out of "'each moment and 
whatever happens," to find that one can ride 
as gay and buoyant on the angry, menacing, 
tumultuous waves of life as on those that 
glide and glitter under a clear sky ; that it 
is not defeat and wretchedness which come 
out of the storms of adversity, but strength 
and calmness. anne gilchrist. 



5ul£ 3, 



Blessed is the man that walketh not in the 
counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the ivay 
of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, 
— Psalm i. i. 

Character is fate ; 
Men's dispositions do their dooms dictate. 

LYTTOX. 

WE are building a crystal character with 
much pain and self-denial, and is it to 
be built as bubbles are blown ? What is finer 
in line than a bubble ? What is more airy ? 
Where are pictures more exquisite, where are 
colors more tender and rich and beautiful— 
and where is there anything that is born so 
near to its end as a bubble ? Is the character 
which we are building with so much pain and 
suffering and patience, with so much burden 
of conscience, and with so much aspiration — 
is the character which we are forming in the 
invisible realm of the soul— is that but a 
bubble ? BEECHER. 

Character is not transferable from father 
to son, but the elements out of which character 
grows are so. Austin phelps. 

Every man will die very much as he lives ; 
. . . There is not this wide difference between 
the living world and the dying world which 
is generally supposed. Character ... is 
not formed in a moment : it cannot be 
changed in a moment. dr. dewev. 



5ul£ 4. 



189 



/ am conie into the country which the Lord 
sware unto our fathers for to give us. — Deut. 
xxvi. 3. 

Let all the ends thou aimest at be thy country's, 
Thy God's, and truth's. 

SHAKSPERE. 

Are not great 
Men the models of nations? For what is a state 
But the many's confused imitations of one ? 

OWEN MEREDITH. 

^"pHE American Republic was founded on 
* the Christian religion. What new foun- 
dation is to be placed beneath it if its origi- 
nal foundation is undermined and taken 
away ? lyman abbott. 

The true democratic idea is, not that every 
man shall be on a level with every other man, 
but that every man shall be what God made 
him without let or hindrance ; that there 
shall be no prejudice against him if he be 
high, and that no disgrace shall attach to him 
if he be low ; that he shall have supreme 
possession of what he is and what he has ; 
that he shall have liberty to use his forces in 
any proper direction ; that whether he be born 
of Caucasian, or African, or Indian parents, 
he shall have all the rights which God gave 
him, BEECHER. 



190 



Many water s cannot quench love, neither can the 
floods drown it. — Song of Solomon, viii. 7. 

Heaven holdeth out the key, 

Love turns it, and unlocks to virtuous minds 

The sanctuary of the beautiful. 

MICHAEL ANGELO. 

LET us look into this word love. Love to 
man may mean several things. It may 
mean love to his person, which is very differ- 
ent from himself, or it may mean simply pity. 
Love to God can only mean one thing. God 
is a character. To love God is to love his 
character. For instance, God is purity. 
And to be pure in thought and look, to turn 
away from unhallowed books and conversa- 
tion, to abhor the moment in which we have 
not been pure, is to love God. 

God is love ; and to love men till private 
attachments have expanded into a philan- 
thropy which embraces all, at last even the 
evil and enemies, with compassion — that is to 
love God. God is truth. To be true, to 
hate every form of falsehood, to live a brave, 
true, real life — that is to love God. God is in- 
finite ; and to love the boundless, reaching on 
from grace to grace, adding charity to faith, 
and rising upward ever to see the ideal still 
above us, and to die with it unattained, aim- 
ing insatiably to be perfect even as the Father 
is perfect — that is to love God. 

F. W. ROBERTSON, 



191 



For we know that if our earthly house of this 
tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of 
God, a house not made with hands, eternal in 
the heavens. — 2 Cor. v. i. 

" Homeward the swift-winged sea gull takes her flight, 
The ebbing tide breaks softer on the sand, 
The red-sailed boats draw homeward for the night, 

The shadows deepen over sea and land : 
Be still, mine soul, thine hour shall also come ; 
Behold, one evening God shall lead thee home." 

'HpHOSE who have been amid mountains, 



A and are condemned to live on plains, die 
of an incurable nostalgia. It is because we 
have issued from above that we sigh for it, 
and that all music is to us a reminiscence of 
our home. . . An infinite love supposes an in- 
finite object. If all the forests were pleasure 
parks, and all the isles were fortunate isles, 
and all the fields were elysian, and all eyes were 

full of joy, oh ! then But no ; then the 

infinite Being must have assured us that such 
felicity would be perpetual. But now that so 
many houses are houses of mourning, so 
many fields are fields of battle, so many faces 
are pale, so many eyes are dulled with tears 
and closed — when things are thus, how can 
the tomb be the end of all ? " 




192 



And the Lord went before them by day in a 
pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way ; and by 
night in a pillar of fire, to give them light : to 
go by day and night. — Exodus xiii. 21. 

So shall He collect us, direct us, protect us, 

From Egypt's strand ; 
So shall he precede us, and feed us, and lead us 

To Canaan's land. 

J. M. NEALE. 

Unless thou show to us thine own true way- 
No man can find it. Father ! thou must lead. 

WORDSWORTH. 

My bark is wafted on the strand 

By breath divine, 
And on the helm there rests a hand 

Other than mine ! 

DEAN OF CANTERBURY. 

V\0 not suffer your spirit to go to and fro, 
as if to see through the crevices of the 
present scene into that which may be beyond. 
The next step has always been shone upon 
by the fiery pillar, and though we do not see 
the end, we come to it in safety. 

MRS. GILBERT ANN TAYLOR. 

We may rest assured that the Supreme 
mind has a purpose, even though we don't 
see it. 

DEAN STANLEY. 



5ul£ 8. 



!93 



We are the clay, and thou our potter. — Is a. 
lxiv. 8. 

Ye also, as lively stones, are built a spiritual 
house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual 
sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. — 
i Peter ii. 5. 

" Oh, blows that smite ! oh, hurts that pierce 
This shrinking heart of mine ! 
What are ye but the Master's tools 
Forming a work divine ? '* 

YOU cannot set the world right, or the 
times, but you can do something for the 
truth ; and all you can do will certainly tell 
if the work you do is for the Master, who 
gives you your share, and so the burden of 
responsibility is lifted off. This assurance 
makes peace, satisfaction, and repose pos- 
sible even in the partial work done upon 
earth. Go to the man who is carving a stone 
for a building ; ask him where is that stone 
going, to what part of the temple, and how is 
he going to get it into place, and what does 
he do ? He points you to the builder's plan. 
This is only one stone of many. So when 
men shall ask where and how is your little 
achievement going into God's plan, point 
them to your Master, who keeps the plans, 
and then go on doing your little service as 
faithfully as if the whole temple were yours 

to build, PHILLIPS BROOKS. 



i 9 4 



Your Father knoweth that ye have need of 
these things. — Luke xii. 30. 

When will the day bring its pleasure ? 
When will the night bring its rest ? 

Reaper and gleaner and thresher 

Peer toward the east and the west, — 

The Sower, he knoweth, and he knoweth best. 

CHRISTINA ROSSETTI. 

Some time, when all life's lessons have been learned, 

And suns and stars for evermore have set, 
The things which our weak judgments here have 
spurned, 

The things o'er which we grieved with lashes wet, 
Will flash before us out of life's dark night, 

As stars shine most in deeper tints of blue. 
And we shall see how all God's plans are right, 

And how what seemed reproof was love most true. 

MAY RILEY SMITH. 

GOD knows us through and through. Not 
the most secret thought which we most 
hide from ourselves is hidden from him. As 
then we come to know ourselves through and 
through, we come to see ourselves more as 
God sees us, and then we catch some little 
glimpse of his designs with us — how each 
ordering of his providence, each check to our 
desires, each failure of our hopes, is just fitted 
for us and for something in our own spiritual 
state which others know not of, and which, 
till then, we knew not. Until we come to 
this knowledge we must take all in faith. 

DR. pusey. 



JUl£ 10. 



Hereby we know that he dwelleth i?i us, by 
the spirit which he hath given us—i John 
iii. 24. 

Abide with me from morn till eve, 
For without Thee I cannot live ; 
Abide with me when death is nigh, 
For without thee I dare not die. 

KEBLE. 

TIE alone believes truth who feels it; he 
■ A alone has religion whose soul knows by 
experience that to serve God and know him 
is the richest treasure. And unless truth 
come to you, not in word only, but in power 
besides — authoritative because true, not true 
because authoritative — there has been no real 
revelation made to you from God. 

F. W. ROBERTSON. 

Abide with us that we may feel that our 
sins are forgiven. Abide with us, for we see 
in the past our follies and our faults, and 
would do wrong no more. Abide with us as 
we lie down to gentle sleep, that it may be 
pleasant and refreshing to us, that pure 
thoughts may keep the portals of our dreams, 
and God's blessing hold watch over us. 

E, H. CHAPIN. 



196 



3ulg XX. 



But I said, Not so, Lord : for nothing com- 
mon or unclea?i hath at any time entered into my 
mouth. 

But the voice answered 7?ie again from heaven, 
What God hath cleansed, that call not thou com- 
mon. — Acts xi. 8, 9. 

Not to Thy saints of old alone dost thou 

In heavenly trance make known thy perfect will; 

But to each hungry soul thy love would fill, 
Descending out of heaven we wist not how, 
Comes by thy grace the holy vision now, 

While we whose hearts should with the message thrill 

Cry 44 common and unholy" to thee still, 
And uninspired in grief before thee bow. 

Oh, thou whose own the way we take hast trod, 
Give to thy children quick discerning eyes, 

That see in life upspringing from the sod 
All the divineness that within it lies, 
Till humblest service lifts us to the skies 

Who, " doubting nothing," seek thy will, O God ! 



From Christia7i Union. 
"'"pHERE is so much to be set right in the 



1 world, there are so many to be led and 
helped and comforted, that we must con- 
tinually come in contact with such in our 
daily life. Let us only take care that we do 
not miss our turn of service, and pass by 
those to whom we might have been sent on 
an errand straight from God." 



LOUISE MANNING HODGKINS. 




197 



All this have I seen, and applied my heart itnto 
every work that is done under the sun.— eccl. 
viii. 9. 

Free men freely work ; 
Whoever fears God fears to sit at ease. 
. . . Let us be content in work 
To do the thing we can, and not presume 
To fret because it's little. 

E. B. BROWNING. 

\TO true work since the world began was 
* ^ ever wasted ; no true life since the world 
began has ever failed. 

SAMUEL SMITH HARRIS. 

My friend, all speech and rumor is short- 
lived, foolish, untrue. Genuine work alone, 
what thou workest faithfully, that is eternal 
as the Almighty Founder and World Builder 
himself. Stand thou by that, and let fame 
and the rest of it go prating. carlyle. 

" Let us wipe our tears, lift up our heads, 
and gird ourselves for brave and cheerful toil. 
In due time the release will come : rest so 
sweet after toil is over ; glory so bright after 
the darkness is past ; victory so grand that we 
shall not wish the conflicts to have been less 
fierce, or the perils of the way less numerous 
or painful." 



198 



5ulg 13. 



Now therefore, keep thy sorrow to thyself, and 
bear with a good courage that which hath be* 
fallen thee. — 2 Esdras x. 15. 

Let nothing- make thee sad or fretful, 
Or too regretful ; 
Be still. 

What God hath ordered must be right : 
Then find in it thine own delight, 



ARD words will vex ; unkindness will 



1 A pierce ; neglect will wound ; threatened 
evils will make the soul quiver ; sharp pain 
or weariness will rack the body, or make it 
restless. But what says the Psalmist ? 
" When my heart is vexed I will complain." 
To whom ? Not of God, but to God. 



Do you know what Luther said ? " Suffer 
and be still, and tell no man thy sorrow ; 
trust in God — his help will not fail thee." 
This is what Scripture calls keeping silence 
before God. To talk much of one's sorrows 
makes one weak, but to tell one's sorrows to 
him who heareth in secret makes one strong 
and calm. tholuck. 



My will. 



PAUL FLEMING. 




DR. PUSEY. 



July 14. 



199 



But as touchi?ig brotherly love ye need not 
that I write unto you : for ye yourselves are 
taught of God to love one another. — 1 Thess. 
iv. 9. 

Man is dear to man ; the poorest poor 

Long for some moments in a weary life 

When they can know and feel that they have been 

Themselves the fathers and dealers out 

Of some small blessings — have been to such 

As needed kindness, for this single cause 

That we have all of us one human heart. 



ITH other eyes, too, could I now look 



y * upon my fellow-man : with an infinite 
love, an infinite pity. Poor wandering, way- 
ward man ! Art thou not tired, and beaten 
with stripes, even as I am ? Ever, whether 
thou bear the royal mantle or the beggar's 
gabardine, art thou not so weary, so heavy 
laden ? . . . Oh, my brother, my brother, why 
cannot I shelter thee in my bosom, and wipe 
away the tears from thy eyes ? 



WORDSWORTH. 



Have love ! not love alone for one, 
But man as man thy brother call ; 

And scatter like the circling sun 
Thy charities on all. 



SCHILLER. 




CARLYLE. 



200 



He that soweth unto his own flesh shall of 
the flesh reap corruption : but he that soweth 
unto the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap eternal 
life.— Gal. vi. 8 (R. V.). 

Sow truth if thou the truth wouldst reap : 
Who sows the false shall reap the vain; 

Erect and sound thy conscience keep, 
From hollow words and deeds refrain. 

Fill up each hour with what will last, 

Buy up the moments as they go ; 
The life above when this is past 

Is the ripe fruit of life below. 

BONAR. 

Revenge and Wrong bring forth their kind — 
The foul cubs like their parents are ; 

Their den is in the guilty mind. 

And Conscience feeds them with despair ! 

SHELLEY. 

WHEN shall we bear in mind this plain 
truth, that the future perfection of the 
saints is not a translation from one state or 
disposition of soul into another diverse from 
the former, but the carrying out, and, as it 
were, the blossom and the fruitage of one and 
the same principle of spiritual life, which 
through their whole career on earth has been 
growing with an even strength, putting itself 
forth in the beginnings and promise of per- 
fection, reaching upward with steadfast as- 
piration after perfect holiness ? 

H. E, MANNING. 



201 



Let your loins be girded about, and your lights 
burning j and ye yourselves like unto men that 
wait for their Lord. — Luke xii. 35, 36. 

We little dream of the conflict 

Fought in each human soul, 
And earth knows not of the heroes 

Upon God's honor roll. 

EBEN E. REXFORD. 

From strength to strength go on ! 

Wrestle and fight and pray ! 
Tread all the Powers of Darkness down, 

And win the well-fought day. 



ES, to me also was given, if not victory, 



A yet the consciousness of battle, and the 
resolve to persevere therein while life or 
faculty is left. To me also, entangled in the 
enchanted forests, demon-peopled, doleful of 
sight and sound, it was given, after weariest 
wanderings, to work out my way into the 
higher sunlit slopes of that mountain which 
has no summit, or whose summit is in heaven 
only. CARLYLE. 

Difficulty, struggle, progress — this is the 
law. By this we conquer ; by this it is that 
the spirit gradually obtains ascendency over 
the flesh ; by this we aspire to be children of 

God. J. WALKER. 



WESLEY. 




202 



Sulg 17. 



All things work together for good to them 
that love God. — Rom. viii. 28. 

Why rushed the discords in but that harmony should 
be prized ? 

Sorrow is hard to bear, and doubt is slow to clear. 
Each sufferer says his say. his scheme of weal and woe ; 
But God has a few of us whom he whispers in the 
ear ; 

The rest may reason and welcome ; 'tis we musicians 
know. 

ROBERT BROWNING. 

Even the diccord in thy soul 
May make completer music roll 
From out the great harmonious whole. 

ADELAIDE PROCTOR. 

HAPPY are those whose habits of thought 
are such as to make the blending of the 
sorrowful and the joyous an easy and natural 
process — a harmony of the soul in which the 
sorrowful is joyous, and the joyous, if not 
sorrowful, yet thereto tending and nearly 
allied. mrs. gilbert ann taylor. 

Details may perplex our faith, but the 
grand whole does not. For the harmonies of 
things appear as we explore. Order in the 
calyx of the violet and in the bosom of the 
sun. Order everywhere, and law ; and that 
law beneficence, securing harmony and peace, 
and working out steadily great ends. 

CHAPIN. 



5ut2 18, 



203 



He that is faithful in that which is least is 
faithful also in much. — Luke xvi. 10. 

Obedience to love adds wings, 
And little faith will grow to great. 

SPITTA. 

'IpHE only way to regenerate the world is 



1 to do the duty which lies nearest us, and 
not to hunt after grand far-fetched ones for 
ourselves. If each drop of rain chose where 
it should fall God's showers would not fall, 
as they now do, on the evil and on the good 
alike. . . Be sure that he who is not faithful 
in a little will never be fit to be ruler over 
much. He who cannot rule his own house- 
hold will never (as St. Paul says) rule the 
Church of God ; and he who cannot keep his 
temper or be self-sacrificing, cheerful, tender, 
attentive at home, will never be of any real 
and permanent use to God's poor abroad. 



A soul occupied with great ideas best 
performs small duties ; the divinest views of 
life penetrate most clearly into the meanest 




CHARLES KINGSLEY. 



emergencies. 



JAMES MARTIXEAU. 



like 
Gal. ii. 



A :ice like 




It is not life upon Thy gifts to live. 

Bat to grow fixed with deeper roots in thee. 

;:yii vij.y, 

"pHE i::car:-.3.:::r. is merely the indwell- 
shirt years i 3. hr.:r. a:: life — it is the indwell- 
ing of God in all his children. It is only as 
we reflect as from a mirror the image of God 
that we are 5: : r:~:.:e d into the same image 
from glory to glory." 

Who is Christ ? He who fed the hungry, 
ilathed the naked, visited the sick. And 
where is Christ? Where? "Whoso shall 
receive a little child in my name, receiveth 
me." And who are Christ's? Everyone 
that 1 : veth is b:rr ; : G : d. drvmm jnd. 



3-ulv? 20. 



205 



And a certain man lame from his mother s 
womb -was carried, 'whom they laid daily at the 
gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to 
ask alms of them that entered into the temple. — 
Acts iii. 2. 

Ah, how shall we, lame from the mother's womb, 
The temple enter? Beautiful in vain 
For us, the gate, where we. in double pain. 

Of suffering and of loss, can find no room ; 

Whose whiteness only makes our outer gloom 

The blacker, and whose shining steps, more plain 
Than words mock cripples weeping to attain 

The inner courts, where censers, sweet perfume, 
And music rill the air ! 

Oh, sinful fear ! 
Dare not to doubt. Our helplessness laid near 
That gate is safe ; our faith without alarms 
Can wait ; the good apostles will appear ; 
Our crippled beggary, made rich by aims 
Of God, shall run and leap and praise in grateful 
psalms. 

H. H. 

" All that God owns he constantly is healing, 
Quietly, gently, softly, but most surely." 

ALL fear and love, hope and awe, sense of 
sin and of helplessness, and longing to be 
other than we are — all, should have one issue: 
to draw us more closely, yet more reverently, 
to Him, in whom alone awe and tear can be 
hushed, helplessness be stayed, sin be biotted 
out, infirmities healed — he. the one source 
and aim of all holiness and hope and love. 

DR, PUSEV. 



206 



For the weapons of our ivarfare are not car- 
nal, but mighty through God to the pulling down 
of strongholds, — 2 Cor. x. 4. 

Thou didst not shun death ; shun not life. 
'Tis more brave to live than to die. 

OWEN MEREDITH. 

THE true hero is the great wise man of 
duty — he whose soul is armed by truth and 
supported by the smile of God ; he who meets 
life's penis with a cautious but tranquil spirit 
gathers strength by facing its storms, and 
dies, if he is called to die, as a Christian victor 
at the post of duty. And if we must have 
heroes and wars wherein to make them, there 
is no so brilliant war as a war with wrong, 
and no hero so fit to be sung as he who has 
gained the bloodless victory of truth and 
mercy. Horace bushnell. 

Let us have faith that right makes might, 
and in that faith let us dare do our duty as; 
we understand it. Abraham Lincoln. 

If you serve your brother because it is fit 
for you to serve him, do not take back your 
words when you find that prudent people do 
not commend you. Be true to your own act, 
and congratulate yourself if you have done 
something strange and extravagant, and 
broken the monotony of a decorous age. 

EMERSON. 



5ul£ 22. 



20J 



I say unto you> Except- a com of ivheat fall 
into the ground and die, it abideth alone : but 
if it die, it bringeih forth much fruit. — John 
xii. 24. 

• So should we live that every hour 
May die as dies the natural flower — 
A self-reviving thing of power 

That every thought and every deed 
May hold within itself the seed 
Of future good and future meed. 

MILNES. 

To-day is but a structure built 

Upon dead yesterday ; 
And Progress hews her temple stones 

From wrecks of old decay. 

M. J. SAVAGE. 

THIRST must the dead letter of religion 
* own itself dead, and drop piecemeal into 
dust, if the living spirit of religion, freed 
from its charnel house, is to arise on us, new 
born of heaven, and with new healing under 
its wings. CARLYLE. 

The higher must always come through the 
loss and death of the lower. Manhood can 
only be gained by the giving up of childhood. 
If the office and life-work are ever to be 
reached, the nursery must be left behind. 
The blossom must die before there can be 
fruit. M. j. SAVAGE. 



208 



$UlJ2 23. 



^//a 7 child grew, and waxed strong, and 
filled with wisdom j and the grace of God was 
upon him. — Luke ii. 40. 

Oh, say not, dream not heavenly notes 

To childish ears are vain, 
That the young mind at random floats 

And cannot reach the strain ! 

KEBLE, 

THERE was once a boy whose name was 
Edmund Rich, and who is called St. 
Edmund of Canterbury ; and his brother tells 
us that once when at the age of twelve he 
had gone into the fields from the boisterous 
play of his companions, he thought that the 
child Jesus appeared to him and said, " Hail, 
beloved one ! " And he, wondering at the 
beautiful child, said, "'Who art thou, for cer- 
tainly thou art unknown to me?" And the 
child Jesus said, " How comes it that I am 
unknown to thee, seeing that I sit by thy side 
at school, and wherever thou art there do I 
go with thee? Look on my forehead, and 
see what is there written." And Edmund 
looked and saw the name " Jesus." " This 
is my name," said the child : " write it on thy 
heart and it shall protect thee from evil." 
Then he disappeared on whom the angels 
desire to look, leaving the little boy Edmund 
with passing sweetness in his heart. 

CANON FARRAR. 



Give us this-day our daily bread. — Matt. vi. ii. 

Give us our daily bread, 

O God, the bread of strength, 

For we have learnt to know 
How weak we are at length — 

As children must be fed. 
Give us thy grace, O Lord, 

To be our daily bread. 

Give us our daily bread, 

The bitter bread of grief ; 
We sought earth's poisoned feasts 

For pleasure and reiief, 
We sought her deadly fruits ; 

But now, O God, instead, 
We ask thy healing grief 

To be our daily bread. 

ADELAIDE PROCTOR. 

C OR whatever happens to me each day is 
* my daily bread, provided I do not refuse 
to take it from Thy hand, and so feed upon it. 

FENELON. 

You acknowledge God as the giver of 
your daily bread ; but the very purpose for 
which he gave us hunger was to make us 
labor for our food. In like manner God 
gives us a hunger and thirst after righteous- 
ness ; and although the sanctifying spirit 
which satisfies that hunger and thirst is a gift 
of his grace, yet must we labor and toil to 
obtain it, thomas hill. 



2IO 



5ul£ 25. 



So then every one of us shall give an account 
of himself to God. — Rom. xiv. 12. 



VERY day is a day of judgment ; man's 



^ whole life is a period of retribution." 

He who sits down in a dungeon which 
another has made has not such cause to 
bewail himself as he who sits down in the 
dungeon which he has made for himself. 



There is a great unwritten law of society 
— a law which both proclaims and enforces 
itself — the law of public opinion. It holds 
no courts, and yet its sitting is perpetual. 
It has no official existence, yet it is stronger 
than judges and governments and armies. 
It employs no officers, and yet, wh'en once 
on a man's track, it never leaves him until it 
has tracked him down. It has no prisons, 
and it needs none, for it makes the world a 
prison from which the convict it condemns 
has no escape but death. Public opinion is 
the jury verdict of humanity ; and its sen- 
tence, uttered by the people's thousand 
tongues, executes itself in retribution. 




DEWEY. 



SAMUEL SMITH HARRIS. 



3ul£ 26. 



211 



Teach me to do thy will. — Psalm cxliii. 10. 
He hath shewed thee, oh, man, what is good. 
Micah vi. 8. 

To be the thing we seem, 
To do the thing we deem 

Enjoined by duty ; 
To walk in faith, nor dream 
Of questioning God's scheme 

Of truth and beauty." 

WHATEVER anyone says, I must be 
good, just as if the emerald were 
always saying this : Whatever anyone does 
or says, I must be an emerald and keep my 

Color. MARCUS AURELIUS. 

To shape the whole future is not our prob- 
lem, but only to shape faithfully a small part of 
it according to rules already known. It is per- 
haps possible for each of us who will with 
due earnestness inquire, to ascertain clearly 
what he, for his own part, ought to do ; this 
let him, with true heart, do, and continue 
doing. The general issue will, as it has 
always done, rest well with a higher intelli- 
gence than ours. carlyle. 

Right living in the fullest sense of the 
word, the spirit of love to God and love to 
man, carried into every relation of life, brings 
the soul into such a state that it is sensitive to 
moral truth and apprehends it as by instinct. 

G, S. MERRIAM, 



212 



3ul£ 27. 



Behold I send an angel before thee, to keep 
thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place 
which I have prepared. Beware of him and 
obey his voice. — Exodus xx. 21. 

" In his own way his chosen sheep 
Must hear his mighty call, 
Must venture through the parted deep 
Beside the liquid wall." 

" We slumber while the present calls, 
But darkness grows with rest, 
Wouldst thou see truth ? To action wake, 
Do the divine behest." 

IF obedience were entire and love were per- 
fect, then would the revelation of the 
Spirit to the soul of man be perfect too. 
There would be trust expelling care, and 
enabling a man to repose ; there would be 
love which would cast out fear ; there would 
be sympathy with the mighty All of God. 

F. W. ROBERTSON. 

No man ever perished who followed first 
the will of God, and then the will of his 
superiors ; but thousands have been damned 
merely for following their own will, and 
relying upon their own judgments, and choos- 
ing their own work, and doing their own 
fancies. For if we begin with ourselves 
whatsoever seems good in our eyes is most 
commonly displeasing to the eyes of God. 

JEREMY TAYLOR, 



3ulE 28. 



213 



He hath sent ??te to bind tip the broken-hearted, 
to proclai??i liberty to the captives, and the open- 
ing of the prison to them that are bound. — 
Isa. li. 1. 

Feel for the wrongs to universal ken 

Daily exposed, woe that enshrouded lies ; 
And seek the sufferer in his darkest den, 

Whether conducted to the spot by sighs 
And moanings, or he dwells (as if the wren 

Taught him concealment) hidden from all eyes 
In silence and the awful modesties 

Of sorrow. 

WORDSWORTH. 

Oh, was it spoken, 
* ' Go ye forth, heal the sick, lift the low, bind the 
broken." 

Of the body alone ? Is our mission then done 
When we leave the bruised hearts if we bind the bruised 
bone ? 

OWEN MEREDITH. 

Pity .and need make all flesh kin. 

EDWIN ARNOLD. 

AH ! the hearts where sin is to do its work 
should be harder than the nether mill- 
stone, yet it enters in among affections, all 
warm, all sensitive, all gushing forth in ten- 
derness ; and deaf to all their pleadings, it 
does its work, as if it were some demon of 
wrath that knew no pity, and heard no groans, 
and felt no relenting. dr. dewey. 



214 



/ have no greater joy than to hear that my 
children walk in truth. — 3 John 4. 

A N error is the more dangerous in pro- 
portion to the degree of truth which it 
contains. amiel. 

I have great faith in truths ; they are 
standing benefits — never get moldy or out of 
fashion. 

MRS. GILBERT ANN TAYLOR. 

Truth itself, according to Locke's fine 
saying, will not profit us so long as she is 
but held in the hand and taken upon trust 
from other minds, not wooed and won and 
wedded by our own. 

GEORGE ELIOT. 

Let the soul be turned as strenuously 
toward good as it usually is toward evil, 
and you will find that the simple love of good- 
ness will give incredible resources to the 
spirit in the search after truth. Love with 
little intellect will perform miracles. 

fenelon. 

Let not mercy and truth forsake thee ; 
bind them about thy neck ; write them upon 
the table of thine heart. — Prov. iii. 3. 



5ul£ 30. 



215 



Commit thy way unto the Lord ; trust also in 
him; and he shall bring it to pass. — Psalm 
xxxvii. 5. 

" Ah, soul ! look upward, trusting ; kiss the rod, 
And know there is no might have been with God." 

We are in God's hands, brother. 

SHAKSPERE, 

I would be quiet, Lord, 

Nor tease nor fret; 
Not one small need of mine 

Wilt thou forget. 

What I most crave perchance 

Thou wilt withhold, 
As we from hands unmeet 

Keep pearls or gold. 

Yet choose thou for me — thou 

Who knowest best ; 
This one short prayer of mine 

Holds all the rest. 

JULIA C. R. DORR. 

ALL things are movable, therefore we must 
be shaken out of things. But because 
this is so we have no need to fear, though 
much shaken ; only let us hold fast to our 
God ; he is the holy one, and from him we 
have nothing to fear. lansing. 

O Lord, if only my will may remain right 
and firm toward thee, do with me whatsoever 
it shall please thee. For it cannot be any- 
thing but good, whatsoever thou shalt do with 

me. THOMAS A KEMPIS. 



2l6 



3ul£ 3t. 



A faithful man shall abound with blessings. — 
Prov. xxviii. 20. 

"After dan-del ions, buttercups. 
Then daisies and clover; 
One blessing touches another 
Over and over and over." 

There are nettles everywhere, 

But smooth green grasses are more common still ; 

The blue of heaven is larger than the cloud. 



OOK back on your life and see what 



^ blessed influences have come to you to 
form your character, to ennoble your aims, to 
inspire you with a true spirit. All this is 
only the preparation for a deeper and fuller 
life of love, which God means to give to all 
of us on the condition of faith. Believe that 
what he has begun he means to carry on and 
finish. That is, trust him. Do not doubt his 
nearness, his influence, his good will. 



When I survey the occurrences of my life, 
and call into account the finger of God, I can 
perceive nothing but an abyss and mass of 
mercies, either in general to mankind, or in 



MRS. BROWNING. 




J. F. CLARKE. 



particular to myself. 



SIR T. BROWNE. 



217 



IN THE MIST. 

Sitting all day in a silver mist, 
In silver silence all the day, 
Save for the low, soft hiss of spray, 

And the lisp of sands by waters kissed 
As the tide draws up the bay ; 

Little I hear, and nothing I see, 

Wrapped in that veil by fairies spun ; 
The solid earth is vanished for me, 
And the shining hours speed noiselessly, 
A woof of shadow and sun. 

Suddenly out of the shifting veil 

A magical bark, by the sunbeams lit, 
Flits like a dream, or seems to flit, 

With a golden prow and a gossamer sail ; 
And the waves make room for it. 

A fair, swift bark from some radiant realm ; 

Its diamond cordage cuts the sky 

In glittering lines ; all silently 
A seeming spirit holds the helm, 

And steers. Will he pass me by ? 

Ah, not for me is the vessel here ! 

Noiseless and swift as a sea bird's flight 
She swerves, and vanishes from the sight ; 



218 



No flap of sail, no parting cheer : 
She has passed into the light. 

Sitting some day in a deeper mist, 

Silent, alone, some other day. 

An unknown bark from an unknown bay, 
By unknown waters lapped and kissed, 

Shall near me through the spray. 

No flap of sail, no scraping of keel — 
Shadowy, dim, with a banner dark ; 
It will hover, will pause, and I shall feel 
A hand which grasps me, and, shivering, steal 
To the cold strand, and embark — 

Embark for that far mysterious realm 

Where the fathomless, trackless waters flow : 
Shall I feel a presence dim, and know 

Thy dear hand, Lord, upon the helm, 
Nor be afraid to go ? — 

And through black waves and stormy blast, 
And out of the fog-wreaths dense and dun 
Guided by thee, shall the vessel run, 

Gain the fair haven, night being past, 
And anchor in the sun ? 

5ARAH WOOLSEV. 



Bugust 2* 



219 



I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his 
glory was not arrayed like one of these. — Matt. 
vi. 29. 

To me the meanest flower that blows can give 
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears. 

WORDSWORTH. 

Flower in the crannied wall, 

I pluck you out of the crannies, 
Hold you here, root and all, in my hand, 
Little flower — but if I could understand 
What you are, root and all, and all in all, 

I should know what God and man is. 

TENNYSON. 

WE love to fancy that a flower is the 
point of transition at which a material 
thing touches the immaterial ; it is the sen- 
tient vegetable soul. We ascribe dispositions 
to it ; we treat it as we would an innocent 
child. . . Flowers have an expression of 
countenance as much as men or animals. 
Some seem to smile ; some have a sad ex- 
pression ; some are pensive and diffident ; 
others, again, are plain, honest, and upright, 
like the broad-faced sunflower and the holly- 
hock. We find ourselves speaking of them as 
laughing, as gay and coquettish, as nodding 
and dancing. No man of sensibility ever 
spoke of a flower as he would of a fungus, a 
pebble, or a sponge. Indeed they are more 
lifelike than many animals. We commune 
with flowers — we go to them if we are sad or 
glad. BEECHER. 



220 



Sugust 3, 



They looked . . . and behold, the glory of 
the Lord appeared in the cloud. — Ex. xvi. 10. 

Each cloud has of silver a lining, 

Though we may not see its light ; 
The sun has not ceased its shining, 

Though hidden awhile from our sight. 
Be faithful and active and earnest, 

In idleness never sit down ; 
The better the dark cross you carry 

The brighter will sparkle the crown. 

WM. JOHNSON. 

p EMEMBER if the cloud is over you that 
there is a bright light always on the 
other side ; also, that the time is coming, 
either in this world or the next, when that 
cloud will be swept away, and the fullness of 
God's light and wisdom poured around you. 
If your life is dark, then walk by faith ; and 
God is pledged to keep you as safe as if you 
could understand everything. 

HORACE BUSHNELL. 

"Look upon the bright side of all things. 
Believe that the best offering you can make 
to God is to enjoy to the full what he sends 
of good, and bear what he allows of evil, like 
a child who believes in all his father's deal- 
ings with it, whether it understands them or 
not." 



Hugust 4. 



221 



Speak not evil one of another. — James iv. n. 

" If aught good thou canst not say 
Of thy brother, foe or friend, 
Take thou, then, the silent way. 
Lest in word thou shouldst offend." 

O EMEMBER that charity thinketh no evil, 
1^ much less repeats it. There are two 
good rules which ought to be written on every 
heart : never believe anything bad about any- 
body unless you positively know it is true ; 
never tell even that unless you feel that it is 
absolutely necessary, and that God is listen- 
ing while you tell it. henry van dyke. 

If there is any person to whom you feel 
dislike, that is the person of whom you ought 
never to speak. r. cecil. 

St. Augustine could not endure any at his 
table that should show any malice against 
others in backbitings or detractings, and had 
therefore two verses written on his table, to 
be, as it were, monitors to such as eat thereat, 
that in such cases the table was not for them. 
. . . How much less will the Lord endure 
any at his table that come thither with 
malice and hatred against their brethren. 

JER. DYKE. 



222 



august 5* 



He that taketh not his cross and follow eth 
after me, is not worthy of ?ne. — Matt. x. 38. 

" Through all the depths of sin and loss 
Drops the plummet of Thy cross ; 
Never yet abyss was found 
Deeper than that cross could sound." 

Through the shadow of an agony 



The gifts of birth, death, genius, suffering, 
Are all for His hand only to bestow ; 
Receive thy portion and be satisfied ; 
Who crowns himself z. king is not the more 
Royal, nor he who mars himself with stripes 
The more partaker of the cross of Christ. 



Turn your back upon the cross — 
Its shadow is before you. 

GEORGE ELIOT. 



HERE is a legendary tale which describes 



1 how the wood of the true cross was of 
old rejected because it would not fit into the 
building of the ancient temple. It was too 
long for one corner, it was too short for 
another, it was too narrow for a third, it was 
too broad for another : and so it v/as laid 
aside till it came forth at last to be the means 
and symbol of the world's redemption. 



Cometh redemption. 



H. h. k. 



H. HAMILTON KING. 




DEAN STANLEY. 



august 6. 



223 



God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit. — 
1 Cor. ii. 10. 

Leave the flesh to the fate it was fit for ! the spirit be 
thine. 

ROBERT BROWNING. 

LET man then learn the revelation of all 
' nature and all thought to his heart : 
namely, that the Highest dwells with him ; 
that the sources of nature are in his own 
mind if the sentiment of duty is there. But 
if he would know what the great God speaketh, 
he must " go into his closet and shut the 
door." . . He must greatly listen to him- 
self, withdrawing himself from all accents of 
other men's devotion. Their prayers even 
are hurtful to him until he have made his 
own. . . He that finds God a sweet en- 
veloping thought to him never counts his com- 
pany. When I sit in that presence, who shall 
dare to come in ? emerson. 

Now the spirit of God lies touching, as it 
were, the soul of man — ever around and near. 
On the outside of earth man stands with the 
boundless heaven above him : nothing be- 
tween him and space — space around him and 
above him — the confines of the sky touching 
him. So is the spirit of man to the spirit of 
the Ever Near. They mingle. In every 
man this is true. f. w 0 Robertson, 



224 



Bugust 7, 



And as 7i>e have borne the image of the earthly^ 
we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. — 
i Cor. xv. 49. 

Open thy bosom, set thy wishes wide,. 
And let in manhood — let in happiness ! 
Amid the boundless theater of thought — 
From nothing up to God — which makes a man. 

YOUNG. 

Woe to the man that wastes his wealth of mind, 
And leaves no legacy to human kind. 

H. COLERIDGE. 

OFTEN we would condole over the hard 
destiny of the young in this era : how, 
after all our toil, we were to be turned out 
into the world, with beards on our chins 
indeed, but with few other attributes of man- 
hood ; no existing thing that we were trained 
to act on, nothing that we could so much as 
believe. carlyle. 

All business and all work should lift up, 
and not hold down ; it should make free, and 
not enslave ; it should ennoble and not 
degrade. It is as honorable to make shoes 
or anchors as to paint pictures or write books. 
The shoemaker should learn the secret 
through his work of finding the sandals of 
manhood for his own feet. The blacksmith 
should learn, through the making of anchors 
for his great ships, to find the anchor that is 
to hold his own soul to the truth amid the 
storms of life, rev. j. w, lee, d. p. 



Bugust 8. 



225 



Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for 
brethern to dwell together in unity. — Psalm 
cxxxiii. 1. 

For none of us liveth to himself. — Rom. xiv. 7. 

ALL the great developments of humanity 
are fulfilled through society. Society sur- 
rounds us at our entrance into life, and its 
influences embrace us till the parting hour. 
The arms of fellow-beings receive us at birth, 
and infold us at death. The first and last 
sounds we hear are human voices. Thus 
social ties entwine themselves about our whole 
existence from the cradle to the grave. 

CHANNING. 

Who is there that cannot give me some- 
thing better than what I find in myself? No 
longer do people weary me. I find social 
visits and the talk of all kinds of men, women, 
and children both pleasant and profitable. 
Verily, my pedestal is shattered. A pillar 
sixty feet high does not now lift me above 
these common things in which the vulgar are 
interested. It does not seem a waste of time 
to hear Mr. A's opinion of the state of the 
market, Mrs. B's anxieties about Robbie's 
cough, young C's experience in football, and 
pretty Miss D's view of the comparative 
merits of Tennyson and Browning, while I 
might be reading metaphysics, or thinking on 
the things of the spirit. mary emily case. 



226 



august 9. 



The good Lord pardon everyone that prepareth 
his heart to seek God. — 2 Chron. xxx. 18, 19. 

May one be pardoned and retain the offense ? 

SHAKSPERE. 

He that finds his heaven must lose his sin. 

COWPER. 

THE value of the experience lies in the 
lesson we learn from it, and the truest 
repentance is often witnessed by the poig- 
nancy of the sorrow. Both the lesson and the 
sorrow have their roots in memory. But 
while we are not to forget that we have some- 
times fallen, we are not always to carry the 
mud with us ; the slough is behind, but the 
clean, clearly defined road stretches ahead 
of us, skies are clear, and God is beyond. 

Christia n U nion . 

The door of repentance is never closed. 
None who have sought it have ever failed to 
find it. No matter how bad or foolish they 
have been, the heavenly Father rejoices to 
welcome back his returning prodigals. 

CANON FARRAR. 

He who cannot feel indignation against 
wrong cannot in a manly way forgive injury. 
The only revenge which is essentially Chris- 
tian is that of retaliating by forgiveness. 

F. W. ROBERTSON. 



Suguet 10. 



227 



It is good for me that I have been afflicted. — 
Psalm cxix. 71. 

There is purpose in pain, 
Otherwise it were devilish. 

OWEN MEREDITH. 

" I cannot say 
Beneath the pressure of life's cares to-day 

I joy in these ; 

But I can say 
That I had rather walk this rugged way 

If Him I please. 

" I cannot feel 
That all is well when darkening clouds conceal 

The shining sun ; 

But then I know 
God lives and loves, and say since this is so, 

Thy will be done." 

MOW many earthly desires and worldly 
feelings are shaken from the soul by the 
tempest of a great sorrow, even as the faded 
leaves of autumn. But when all the leaves 
are stripped from the tree, and it stands bare 
and desolate under the lashings of winter 
winds, there still remain carefully sealed upon 
every branch and twig buds of celestial hope 
which are to unfold in leaf and flower in the 
summer of God's kingdom. 

H. B. STOWE. 



228 Sugust n. 



And now abideth faith , hope, love, these 
three j but the greatest of these is love. — i Cor. 
xiii. 13. 

" A little bit of patience often makes the sunshine 



A little bit of love makes a very happy home, 
A little bit of hope makes a rainy day look gay, 
A little bit of charity makes glad a weary day." 

Trust all to love ; be patient and approve ; 
Love understands the mystery. 

CHRISTINA ROSSETTI. 

A/E are- in this world like a child who 



y r plays upon the floor with a disin- 
tegrated map, which she does not know how 
to put together. Here is some father-love, 
and here some mother-love, and here some 
brother-love, and here some wife-love ; here 
some love that is wrathful against wrong, and 
here some love that is merciful and compas- 
sionate toward the sinful — love all broken up 
in fragments. Put them together. Take 
your life for this task, and put them together. 
You will find the map is love, for life is God, 
and God is love. lyman abbott. 



come, 




Bugu6t \2. 



229 



Being confident of this very thing, that he 
which hath begun a good work in you, will per- 
form it until the day of Jesus Christ. — Philip- 
pians i. 6. 

Then welcome each rebuff 
That turns earth's smoothness rough, 
Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand, but go ! 
Be our joys tkree parts pain ! 
Strive, and ho^i cheap the strain ; 
Learn, nor account the pang ; dare, never grudge 



Heaven is not reached at a single bound, 
But we build the ladder by which we rise 
From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies, 

And we mount to its summit round by round. 



HE besetting sin may become the guard- 



1 ian angel. Let us thank God that we 
can say it ! Yes, this sin that has sent me 
weary-hearted to bed and desperate in heart 
to morning work can be conquered. I do 
not say annihilated, but better than that — con- 
quered, captured, and transfigured into a 
friend ; so that I, at last, shall say, My 
temptation has become my strength ! for to 
the very fight with it I owe my force. 



the throe ! 



ROBERT BROWNING. 



J. G. HOLLAND. 




W. C. GANNETT. 



230 



august 13. 



Put on thy beautiful garments, 0 Jerusalem. — 
Isa. lii. i. 



What might I not have made of thy fair world 
Had I but loved thy highest creature here ? 



HOSE stately elms that teach us every 



1 winter how meekly to lay our glories by, 
and receive the reverses of inevitable misfor- 
tunes, and clothe ourselves afresh after every 
winter, what have ye that may compare with 
them ? The cathedrals of the world are not 
traced as these, nor so adorned, nor so full of 
communion, nor have they pliant boughs on 
which with humble might they swing the peace- 
ful singing bird, and from whose swaying, night 
or day, there is music in the air for them that 
know the sound ! Of all man's works of art 
a cathedral is greatest. A tree is greater 
than that. Of all man's instruments of sound 
an organ uttering its mazy harmonies through 
the somber arches of the reverend pile is the 
grandest ; but the sound of summer in the 
forest is grander than that. beecher. 



My God, 



TENNYSON. 



And every common bush afire with God ; 
But only he who sees takes off his shoes. 



MRS. browning. 




august 14. 23 1 



See, saith He, that thou make all things accord- 
ing to the pattern showed thee in the mount. — 
Heb. viii. 5. 

I STILL 

Stand in the cloud, and, while it wraps 
My face, ought not to speak, perhaps ! 

ROBERT BROWNING. 

"HpHE situation that has not duty, its ideal, 
* was never yet occupied by man. Yes, 
here in this miserable, despicable actual, 
wherein thou even now standest — here or 
nowhere is thy ideal ! Work it out there- 
from ! . . . The ideal is in thyself ; the 
impediment too is in thyself. carlyle. 

There is in all things an ideal, a divine 
principle, revealing itself in spite of con- 
tradictory elements — something which it only 
can be in a sudden transitory flash, as an 
ordinary face will in some moment of satisfied 
affection, of exalted feeling, be transfigured 
into beauty and nobleness. 

DORA GREENWELL. 

Get the pattern of your life from God, 
and then go about your work and be yourself. 

PHILLIPS BROOKS. 



BUyUrt 15. 



Who hath delivered us from the power of 
darkness* — Ccl. i. 15. 

The dayspring from on high hath visited us, 
to give light to them that sit in darkness. — 
Luke i, 78, 79. 



" Yea, hear me, Son of Man — with tears my eyes are 

dim, 

I cannot read the word which draws me close to him. 

" 1 say it after thee, with faltering voice and weak, 
' Father of Jesus Christ ■ — this is the God I seek. 

'* On thee I lean my soul, bewildered, tempest tost ; 
If thou canst fail, for me then everything is lost." 

f IOW deep is the gloom which weighs upon 
the spirit in reading the words of those 
who find no God in the world, nothing but 
man and a something which they call na- 
ture ! . . . What is nature ? Matter, force, 
and law. Which of these shall be just ? 
Which of them shall show mercy ? Which 
shall help or save ? Nature is not our parent. 
She cannot reveal to us a parent. Nature re- 



veals power, and not with certainty anything 
else. Is it an intelligent power ? Is it a benef- 
icent power ? We know not. Call it the un- 
knowable and escape despair if you can. . . 



Knowing Christ we know God a father, a 
redeemer, a sufferer. mary emilv cask. 



Bugust 16. 



233 



For a small moment have I forsaken thee : 
but with great mercies will I gather thee. — Isa. 
liv. 7. 

Even as a nurse, whose child's imperfect pace 
Can hardly lead his foot from place to place, 
Leaves her fond kissing 1 , sets him down to go, 
Nor does uphold him for a step or two : 
But when she finds that he begins to fall 
She holds him up and kisses him withal — 
So God from man sometimes withdraws his hand 
Awhile to teach his infant faith to stand ; 
But when he sees his feeble strength begin 
To fail, he gently takes him up again. 



E are the portion the Lord takes out of 



v y the hand of his enemy and ours, and 
he cares for us as such. A love that is ever- 
lasting, a care that is likened to that which 
guards the pupil of the eye, a fidelity of 
attachment to which the mother's love finds 
no parallel — these have been expended on us, 
and are still in operation toward us. Can it 
be doubted, then, that he cares for us ? 



QUARLES. 



He holds me when the billows smite ; 

I shall not fall. 
If sharp, 'tis short ; if long, 'tis light ; 

He tempers all. 



ALFORD. 




DR. JOHN HALL. 



234 



&U0U6t 17, 



Lord, teach us to pray. — Luke xi. i. 

<£ Every inward aspiration 
Is God's angel undented, 
And for every 4 Oh, my Father ! ' 
Slumbers deep a 'Here, my child ! ' " 

" Say what is prayer, when it is prayer indeed ? 
The mighty utterance of a mighty need. 
The man is praying who doth press with might 
Out of his darkness into God's own light." 



HAT prayer of an unhappy queen, " Oh, 



1 keep me innocent; make others great ! " 
— that prayer of a great saint, " Give me, O 
Lord, a noble heart, which nothing earthly 
can drag down ! " — that prayer of a sinful yet 
saintly king, " Teach me to do the thing 
that pleaseth thee, for thou art my God ; 
let thy loving spirit lead me into the land of 
righteousness " — those are among the best 
prayers I know, because they are most in ac- 
cordance with that prayer which Christ him- 
self has taught us, which out of seven peti- 
tions has but one for any earthly blessing, 
and that only for daily bread, and of which 
the keynote is, " Our Father, which art in 
heaven." canon farrar. 

Prayer is a key which, being turned by the 
hand of faith, unlocks all God's treasures. 




HANNAH MORE. 



Sugust \$. 



^35 



Study to show thyself approved unto God, a 
workman that needeth not to be ashamed. — 
2 Tim. ii. 15. 

" We are builders, and each one 
Should cut and carve as best he can. 
Every life is but a stone, 
Everyone shall hew his own, 
Make or mar, shall every man/' 

Sculptors of life are we, as we stand 

With our souls uncarved before us. 
Waiting the hour when at God's command 

Our life-dream passes o'er us, 
If we carve it yet on the yielding stone, 

With many a sharp incision, 
Its heavenly beauty shall be our own, 

Our lives — that angel vision. 



E are all building a soul-house ; yet 



with what different architecture and 



The life which to its length and breadth 
adds height, which to its personal ambition 
and sympathy with man adds the love and 
obedience of God, completes itself into the 
cube of the eternal city, and is the life com- 
plete. PHILLIPS BROOKS. 



BISHOP DOANE. 




what various care ! 



BEECHER. 



2$6 



august \9. 



Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers 
only. — James i. 22. 

WE are not made upon this pattern, to be 
children of nature at ten o'clock, and 
children of grace at four; nor is religion a 
separate business, a branch of study, a pro- 
gramme lesson, that can be emptied out into 
an hour ; but a life of every time, a spirit of all 
work, a secret wonder in the thought, a manly 
duty in the will, a noble sweetness in the tem- 
per, which spreads from the eye of an. earnest 
teacher, though seldom coming from his lips, 
but which would cease to lurk in his silent 
looks were there not sacred things represented 
by him of which at any moment he might 
speak. In short religion is the very respira- 
tion of all faithful and loving toil ; and to de- 
tach it for minutes specially reserved is like 
proposing to take your walk in the morning, 
and do your breathing in the afternoon. 

JAMES MARTINEAU. 

His hidden meaning lies in our endeavors. 

FLETCHER. 

As religion has deepened its hold and 
broadened its sway, every part of life quick- 
ened by its touch has become more real, 
more sacred, more joyful, more satisfying. 
Religion is not a department of human life. 
Religion is a spirit pervading all departments 
of human life. mary emily case. 



Bu^ust 20. 



237 



He is our peace. — Eph. ii. 14. 

I bent before Thy gracious throne 

And asked for peace on suppliant knee ; 

And peace was given — nor peace alone, 
But faith sublimed to ecstasy. 

WORDSWORTH. 

I HAVE seen souls whose peace chamber 
within was ample, into which they re- 
treated from the strife of tongues, from the 
pursuit of envy and jealousy, and from all 
great worldly strifes and ambitions ; and 
there, by as much as around about them were 
night and storm and tempest, by so much they 
found tranquillity and security and blessed 
peace. beecher. 

The deepest want of man is not a desire 
for happiness, but a craving for peace ; not 
a wish for the gratification of every desire, 
but a craving for the repose of acquiescence 
in the will of God : and it is this which 
Christianity promises. Christianity does not 
promise happiness, but it does promise peace. 
"In the world ye shall have tribulation/' 
saith our Master, " but be of good cheer : I 
have overcome the world." 

F. W. ROBERTSON. 



The blessed shall hear no vain words, but 
only the word peace. koran. 



2 3 8 



august 21. 



I am the light of the world. — John ix. 5. 

The dial 

Receives many shades, and each points to the sun. 
The shadows are many, the sunlight is one. 
Life's sorrows stili fluctuate ; God's love does not, 
And his love is unchanged when it changes our lot. 
Looking up to this light, which is common to all, 
And down to these shadows, on each side that fall 
In time's silent circle, so various for each, 
Is it nothing to know that they never can reach 
So far, but what light lies beyond them forever? 

OWEN MEREDITH. 

O Lord, our Lord, and spoiler of our foes, 

There is no light but thine ; with thee all beauty glows ! 

KEBLE. 

HOW many lights are there in the world ? 
I ask a little child, and she says, There is 
starlight, and there is electric light, and there 
is coal- light, and there is firelight, and there 
is gaslight. And I say, Oh, no, there is only 
one light in the world ; it is all sunlight — coal- 
light, firelight, moonlight, electric light, gas- 
light — it is all sunlight. And how many 
kinds of love are there in the world ? Only 
one kind of love. The diamond does not have 
a light at the heart of it. The diamond 
catches the sunlight and flashes it back ; and 
the mother catches the divine love and flashes 
it *back. Justice is love, and mercy is love, 
and pity is love, and they are all inflections of 
the divine love. lyman abbott. 



2 39 



Unto the pure all things are pure : but unto 
them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing 
pure. — Titus i. 15. 

We see far in holy ground 

If duly purged our mental view. 

KEBLE. 

Goodness thinks no ill 
Where no ill seems. 

MILTON. 

'HpHE sensual man hears of God and 
A understands one thing. The pure man 
hears and conceives another thing. Whether 
you speak in metaphysical or metaphorical 
language, in the purest words of inspiration 
or the grossest images of materialism, the 
conceptions conveyed by the same word are 
essentially different, according to the soul 
which receives them. 

F. W. ROBERTSON. 

A man only understands what is akin to 
something already existing in himself. 

AMIEL. 

Man cannot really disguise for long periods 
the true features of the soul. 

DR. LIDDON. 



240 



august 23. 



Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, mur- 
ders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false wit- 
ness, blasphemies. — Matt. xv. 19. 

O Thou of purer eyes than to behold 
Uncleanliness ! lift my soul, removing all 
Strange thoughts, imaginings fantastical, 
Iniquitous allurements manifold ! 
Make it a spiritual ark, abode 
Severely sacred, perfumed, sanctified, 
Wherein the Prince of Purities may abide — 
The holy and eternal spirit of God ! 

DAVID GRAY. 

YOUR souls are a picture gallery. Cover 
the walls of them with things serene, 
noble, beautiful, and the foul and flesh}' will 
seem revolting. " Hang this upon the wall 
of your room," said a wise picture dealer to 
an Oxford undergraduate as he handed to 
him the engraving of a Madonna of Raphael, 
" and then all the pictures of jockeys and 
ballet girls will disappear." Try the same 
experiment within your souls. Let their 
walls be hung with all things sweet and per- 
fect — the thought of God, the image of 
Christ, the lives of God's saints, the aspira- 
tions of good and great men, the memories 
of golden deeds, noble passages of poetic 
thought, scenes of mountain and sunset and 
ocean. Oh, do this, and there shall be no 
room for the thoughts of carnal ugliness 
which deprave corrupted souls ! 

CANON FARRAR. 



Sugust 24. 



241 



Behold, I stand at the door, and knock. — Rev. 
iii. 20. 

" Naught can comfort me ! 
Even if the heavens were free to such as I, 
It were not much, for death is long to wait, 
And heaven is far to go ! " 

What, is it long 
To wait and far to go ? Thou shalt not go. 
Behold, across the snow to thee He comes ! 
Thy heaven descends ! And is it long to wait ? 
Thou shalt not wait, " This night, this night," he 
saith, 

" I stand at the door and knock." 

But do thou know 
That on thy lot much thought is spent in heaven, 
And coveting the heart a hard man broke, 
One standeth patient, watching in the night, 
And waiting in the daytime ? 

Speak then, oh, rich and strong ; 
Open, oh, happy young, ere yet the hand 
Of him that knocks, wearied, at last forbare, 
The patient foot its thankless quest refrain, 
The wounded heart for evermore withdraw ! 

JEAN INGELOW. 

TO let Christ in upon your life means 
release from brutal conceptions, rescue 
from base passions, the crushing of the tyrant 
selfishness ; it means an immigration of God's 
thoughts and loves, an importation of the 
eternal purity and joy. An open mind here 
is a free harbor to the fleets that sail in upon 
the soul out of the divine strength and pity. 

REV. GEORGE A. GORDON. 



242 



Bu^ust 25. 



There stood by the cross of Jesus his mother. 
— John xix. 25. 

11 Hundreds of stars in the lovely sky, 

Hundreds of shells on the shore together, 
Hundreds of birds that go singing by, 
Hundreds of birds in the sunny weather. 

" Hundreds of dewdrops to greet the dawn, 
Hundreds of bees in the purple clover, 
Hundreds of butterflies on the lawn, 

But only one mother, the wide world over ! " 



HO can hide anything from that 



r mother eye that sees and feels, but 
seems to know nothing, because it is guided 
by a heart that has the tenderness, the deli- 
cacy, the selfless affection a mother heart 



The mother learns love from the child, 
for every mother may be a Madonna, and 
every child is a Holy Child, bringing new 
lessons and a new ministry of love to the 
mother who looks through the eyes that look 
up to her and sees the infinite that is flashed 
down from the skies into her keeping. 




alone possesses ? 



ROSE TERRY COOKE. 



LYMAN ABBOTT. 



Bugust 26. 



243 



Ye have need of patience that, after ye have 
done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. 
— Heb. x. 36. 

Hast thou o'er the clear heaven of thy soul 

Seen tempests roll ? 
Hast thou watched all the hopes thou wouldst have won 

Fade one by one ? 
Wait till the clouds are past, then raise thine eyes 

To bluer skies ! 

ADELAIDE PROCTOR. 



HE crown of patience cannot be received 



1 where there has been no suffering. If 
thou refuseth to suffer thou refuseth to be 
crowned ; but if thou wishest to be crowned 
thou must fight manfully and suffer patiently. 
Without labor none can obtain rest, and with- 
out contending there can be no conquest. 



" Be patient," said a Scotchman reprov- 
ingly to his little son. 

" What is ' to be patient,' father ? " inquired 
the child. 

" Bide a wee and dinna weary," replied the 
father, with a loving pressure on his shoulder. 




THOMAS A KEMPIS. 



ANNA SHIPTON. 



244 



SU0U8t 27* 



Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters. — 
Isa. xxxii. 20. 

God keep us through the common days, 

The level stretches white with dust, 
When thought is tired, and hands upraise 

Their burdens feebly, since they must. 
In days of slowly fretting care 
Then most we need the strength of prayer. 

MARGARET E. SANGSTER. 

IT seems hard to be generous, not easy to 
be just, to the times upon which our lot is 
cast. Yet much that we now look upon as 
prosaic, and perhaps decry as unreal, if read 
as history would enchain our imagination, if 
spoken as prophecy would stir our very souls. 

DORA GREEN WELL. 

The apostle bids us mind not high things. 
A man of the greatest intellectual gifts and 
attainments may be doing his duty in scrub- 
bing the floor. If he is doing his duty he is 
doing the highest thing in all the universe. 
Let no one say he stoops to such toil. If he 
himself feels that he stoops to do it he is not 
a man of high character. It is an exalted 
privilege that we are permitted to do any- 
thing that is of use. All work stands above 
us and beckons us up. Happy is he who sees 
every duty as above him and worthy of his 

best, MARY EMILY CASE. 



Sugust 2S. 



2 45 



Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness 
because of 'mine enemies ; make thy way straight 
before my face. — Psalm v. 8. 

Wisdom and Jove in secret fellowship 
Guide our world's wandering with ringer tip. 

EDWIN ARNOLD. 

Be Thou my guardian and my guide, 

And hear me when I call ! 
Let not my slippery footsteps slide, 

And hold me lest I fall ! 

WILLIAMS. 

WHEN the babe puts his little soft hand 
into yours, his hand is as strong as 
yours, since it is yours that guides it ; so 
when we put our hand into God's we are by 
his grace as strong as he is, since he leads, 
and we only follow. beecher. 

We want a guide who knows us, whether 
we be self-willed and over-confident, or 
despondent and over-sensitive, or worldly 
and aspiring. We want a guide who knows 
our frame and pities us, is not vexed with our 
ignorance or mistakes, but is tender toward 
us and patient. We want a guide who values 
character, and knows how to train while he 
guides ; who guides, for the purpose of train- 
ing, sometimes into very hard paths, but profit- 
able for the soul. t. d. woolsey. 



246 



Sugust 29. 



For as zee hare many members in one body, 
and all members have not the same office : so 
we, being many, are one body in Christ. — Rom. 
xii. 4, 5. 



Our souls are organ pipes of divers stops 
And various pitch ; each with its proper notes 
Thrilling beneath the self-same breath of God, 
Though poor alone, yet joined are harmony. 



T every moment of our lives we should be 



trying to find out, not in what we differ 
with other people, but in what we agree with 



Theologies — which have divided men into 
religious partisans, fomenting strife and pro- 
ducing wars ; which have separated men into 
parties bitter and revengeful — have grown 
kinder and humaner as the years have passed, 
and tend now to unite men rather than to 
divide them. . . From the beginning nature 
and human effort have wrought together for 
universal good will and social organization. 
Lapses have been frequent and the net gain 
of fraternity small, but from age to age, with- 
out cessation and without intermission, in 
volume and sweep it has been increasing. 



Each has his gift — 



CHARLES KINGSLEY. 




them. 



RUSKIN. 



REV. J. W. LEE, D. D. 



august 30, 



247 



They could not drink of the waters of Marah, 
for they were bitter. . . I am the Lord that 
healeth thee. — Exodus xv. 23, 26. 

1 1 It may be the bitter future is less bitter than I think; 
The Lord may sweeten the water before I stoop 
to drink, 

Or if Marah must still be Marah, he will stand beside 
side the brink." 

/^\H, that we might never forget, when- 



ever we come to our Marahs, and taste 
their bitter waters, this consoling truth, that 
He is our healer ! . . . How many and vari- 
ous are the contrivances to which men 
resort — and even Christian men — before they 
learn this divine exclusiveness of help asserted 
in the text. . . Marah's sad experience is 
daily renewed. Water is at hand, but it 
quenches no thirst. Moses is near, but Moses 
alone is helpless. Self-upbraidings and mur- 
murs abound, but deliverance comes not. 
World help, human help, self-help — all are in- 
adequate. . . I am thy healer : specifically and 
particularly thine. . . 



" Whosoever thirsteth, let him come unto 
Me and drink." 




THEODOR CHRISTLIEB. 



248 



Sugust 31. 



But I keep under my body, and bring it into 
subjection. — 1 Cor. ix. 27. 

All power, all virtue, is repression. 



E must control ourselves or the light 



y y will be put out. Men often cheat them- 
selves much more than they do others. . . 
Do some of you think to gain self-control is 
easy ? If you think so you have never made 
a real effort at it. Do some of you think it 
is hard ? Remember, God works with and in 
him who tries to be right and to do right. 

Then in your exercise of self-control have 
a good supply of patience. You have seen 
how sometimes those who have succeeded in 
gaining control of themselves are impatient 
with others who lack in this respect. Per- 
sons may obtain this mastery of themselves 
by heroic effort, or it may be they lack temp- 
tation. There are some who think patience 
to be a weak thing. It is no sign of strength 
that through lack of self-control we give 
vent to temper and passion. A horse that 
runs away does not prove that it is strong, 
but that the driver is weak. 



BUCHANAN. 




JOHN A. BROADUS. 



September !♦ 249 



THE IMMORTAL NOW. 

Sit not blindfold, soul, and sigh 
For the immortal by and by ! 
Dreamer, seek not heaven afar 
On the snores of some strange star ! 
This a star is— this, thine earth ; 
Here the germ awakes to birth 
Of God's sacred life in thee— 
Heir of immortality ! 

Inmost heaven its radiance pours 
Round thy windows, at thy doors, 
Asking but to be let in, 
Waiting to flood out thy sin, 
Offering thee unfailing health, 
Love's refreshment, boundless wealth. 
Voices at thy life's gate say, 
"Be immortal, soul, to-day ! " 

Thou canst shut the splendor out, 
Darken every room with doubt ; 
From the entering angels hide 
Under tinseled wefts of pride ; 
While the pure, in heart behold 
God in every flower unfold — 
While the poor his kingdom share, 
Reigning with him everywhere. 

Oh, let Christ and sunshine in ; 
Let his love its sweet way win ! 
Nothing human is too mean 
To receive the King unseen ; 



2 5 G 



September l. 



Not a pleasure or a care 
But celestian robes may wear ; 
Impulse, thought, and action may 
Live immortally to-day. 

Balance not in scales of time 
Deathless destinies sublime ! 
What vague future can weigh down 
This great Xow that is thine own ? 
Love was miserly that gave 
Only gifts beyond the grave, 
Heaven makes every earth-plant thrive. 
All things are in God alive. 

Oh. the stifled bliss and mirth 
At the weary heart of earth, 
We, her children, might awake ! 
Songs would from her bosom break ; 
Toil, unfettered from its curse. 
God's glad purpose would rehearse, 
If with him we understood 
Of creation, " It is good." 

Soul, perceive thy perfect hour ! 
Let thy life burst into flower ; 
Heaven is opening to bestow 
More than thou canst think or know. 
Xow to thy true height arise 
Enter now thy paradise. 
In to-day to-morrow see ! 
Now is immortality. 

LUCY LARCOM. 



September 2, 251 



And knowledge shall be increased. — Dan. 
xii. 4. 

Learn the mystery of progession duly, 

Do not call each glorious change decay ; 
But know we only hold our treasures truly 

When it seems as if they pass'd away ! 
Nor dare to blame God's gifts for incompleteness ! 

In that want their beauty lies : they roll 
Toward some infinite depth of love and sweetness 

Bearing onward man's reluctant soul. 



/^REAT ideas travel slowly and for a time 
noiselessly, as the gods, whose feet were 
shod with wool. 



Like a magnificent temple, civilization has 
been rising through the centuries. . . It is 
built of granite, cut from the Gethsemanes of 
history. . . Its foundations are built of con- 
victions, its pillars of hope, its vaulting of 
lofty purpose, and its windows of faith. Its 
cement is the blood of suffering, and its deco- 
ration the loves of heroes. It is the edifice 
man has built in which to house the social 
side of his nature. It contains and will con- 
serve all contributions ever made to human 

Weal. REV. J. W. LEE, D. D. 



ADELAIDE PROCTOR. 




JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



252 



September 3. 



The soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul 
of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own 
soul. — i Sam. xviii. i. 

" Like pearls that form a rosary, 
So lie in shining rows for me, 
Strung on a golden thread of time, 
The precious hours I know with thee. 

And filled with love and praise of thee, 
As one who tells his rosary, 
I count upon the beads of time 
The benisons thou bringest me." 

THE ideal of friendship is to feel as one 
while remaining two. 

MME. SWETCHTNE. 

Two vines, growing over a porch, meet 
each other, and twine together, and twist 
fiber into fiber and stem into stem, and take 
shape from each other, and are substantially 
one. And such are friendships. Now one 
cannot have his life divided as two trees are. 
He cannot enter into partnership with others, 
and be conscious that that partnership shall 
be but for an hour or a moment. The sanc- 
tity, the honor, the exaltation, the exhilaration 
of a true and manly friendship lies in the 
thought of its continuance. There can be no 
deep friendship which does not sigh for end- 
lessness. BEECHER. 



September 4, 253 



Jacob served seven years for Rachel : and they 
seemed unto him but a few days y for the love he 
had for her. — Gen. xxix. 20. 

Judge of her love by her life. For our life is but love 
In act. Pure was hers ; and the dear God above, 
Who knows what his creatures have need of for life, 
And whose love includes all loves, through much patient 
strife 

Led her soul into peace. Love, though love may be 
given 

In vain, is yet lovely. 



HAT has Love not power to do ? By 



* * her power weak women have been 
made strong, stronger than hate, stronger 
than torture, stronger than death. It voices 
a wisdom wiser than philosophy ever ut- 
tered or sages ever learned. 



The strength of affection is a proof not of 
the worthiness of the object, but of the large- 
ness of the soul which loves. Love descends, 
not ascends. The might of a river depends 
not on the quality of the soil through which 
it passes, but on the inexhaustibleness and 
depth of the spring from which it proceeds. 



OWEN MEREDITH. 




W. H. H. MURRAY. 



F. W. ROBERTSON, 



254 September 5, 



/ will betroth thee unto me forever in right- 
eousness. — Hos. ii. 19. 

I loved thee for the lovely soul thou art ; 
Thou canst not change so true a love as this. 

H. COLERIDGE. 

And thank Heaven, fasting, for a good man's love ! 

SHAKSPERE. 

Beloved, let us love so well 
Our work shall still be better for our love, 
And still our love be sweeter for our work ! 
And both commended for the sake of each 
By all true workers and true lovers born. 

E. B. BROWNING. 

"HpHE soul's armor is never well set to the 
* heart unless a woman's hand has braced 
it ; and it is only when she braces it loosely 
that the honor of manhood fails ! 

RUSKIN. 

I too believe in romance. I believe in 
love at first sight — provided it is love that 
will stand second sight. I believe in disin- 
terested affection. Nor would I counsel my 
children to marry for money, or for distinc- 
tion, or for position. I should rather say to 
them, " In regard to money, make what you 
are to spend ; and as to position, earn it. Do 
not steal it through somebody's daughter ! " 

BEECHER. 



September 6. 



255 



And they twain shall be one flesh. — Matt. 
xix. 5. 

Oh, there is something in marriage, like the veil of 

the temple of old 
That screened the holy of holies with blue and purple 

and gold ! 

Something that makes a chamber where only the one 
may come, 

A sacredness too, and a silence, where joy that is 
deepest is dumb. 

Oh, come ! for my heart is weary waiting, my love, for 
thee ! 

I will lock my bliss from the world, but my love shall 
have ever the key ! 

WALTER SMITH. 

The kindest and the happiest pair 
Will find occasion to forbear, 
And something every day they live 
To pity — and, perhaps, forgive ! 

COWPER. 

SHE who willingly lifts up the veil of her 
married life has profaned it from a sanc- 
tuary into a vulgar place. george eliot. 

I know it is best for young people to begin 
their married life alone together. A third 
person, however dear, is a third person, and 
a mistake always. You need to learn to 
depend on each other, to forbear with each 
other, to ignore a great deal and accept a 
great deal with which a third person would 
interfere, though she might endeavor not to. 

ROSE TERRY COOK. 



25 6 September 7, 



Thou shalt bring her home to thy house.— 
Deut. xxi. 12. 

His will I be, and with him will I abide. — 
2 Sam. xvi. 18. 

44 Home is not merely roof and room — 

It needs something to endear it. 
Home is where the heart can bloom, 

Where there's some kind lip to cheer it ! 
What is home with none to meet, 

None to welcome, none to greet us ? 
Home is sweet, and only sweet, 

Where there's one who loves to meet us ! " 

MOME interprets heaven. Home is heaven 
* * for beginners. dr. parkhurst. 

I add a caution, which it would be well if 
every couple would take into consideration. 
I refer to that spirit of disputation which per- 
vades almost every family. It is a matter of 
no moment what weapon they choose whereby 
to put to flight their domestic peace. They 
will maintain endless arguments about a pin 
or a straw, till they have rendered those 
desperate for whom they would sacrifice their 
lives, Beware of the first dispute ! 

MRS. GILBERT ANN TAYLOR, 



September 8. 257 



When I am old and gray-headed, O God, for- 
sake me not. — Psalm lxxi. 18. 

Ah ! fear not life's declining day ; 

Though westward bound, love lights the way. 

MARGARET W. KISTON. 

TF in order to realize the advent of the Com- 
* forter the ear must be closed to sound, and 
the eyelids droop to make a shade, and the 
body be still as if in loneliness and death, it 
is plain that whatever addresses itself to our 
perceptions is excluded as a distraction and 
spurned as a carnal thing. 

JAMES MARTINEAU. 

The old have lost physical strength and 
energy, the gladness of abounding physical 
life. This is a loss hard to bear. Bodily 
strength is a great good. Strength of soul is 
better. Who would go back from what he 
now thinks to what he used to think ? Who 
would barter a chastened spirit for a strong 
arm and leaping blood ? . . . I love the 
young, but the old are better. It is good to 
talk with a boy or girl of twenty ; it is better 
to talk with a man or woman of forty ; better 
Still with a man or woman of eighty. 

MARY EMILY CASE, 



2 5 8 September 9, 



He that contemneth small things shall fall by 
little and little. — Ecclus. xix. i. 

Begin, then, first with little things, 
The smallest sin avoid and hate. 

SPITTA. 

WHEN a man begins to do wrong he 
cannot answer for himself how far he 
may be carried on. He does not see before- 
hand ; he cannot know where he will find him- 
self after the sin is committed. One false 
step forces him to another — one evil conces- 
sion requires another. dr. newman. 

It is astonishing how soon the whole con- 
science begins to unravel if a single stitch 
drops ; one little sin indulged makes a hole 
you could put your head through. 

CHARLES BUXTON. 

A vessel will sink whether filled with 
heavy stones or with sand. Fine grains of 
sand will bury travelers in the desert. 
Fine flakes of snow, so light that they seem 
to hang in the air and scarce to fall, will, if 
they gather over the sleepy wayfarer, extin- 
guish life ; if they drift they will bury whole 
houses and their dwellers. Fine, delicate 
sins, as people think them, will chill the soul 
and take away its life. dr. pusey. 



September 10. 2 59 



I must work the works of him that sent 
me. — John ix. 4. 

Our duty down here is to do, not to know. 

Live as though life were earnest, and life will be so ! 

LYTTON. 

TN trying to understand the words of Jesus by 
* searching back, as it were, for such thoughts 
and feelings in him as would account for the 
words he spoke, the perception awoke that at 
least he could not have meant by the will of 
God any such theological utterances as those 
which troubled him. Next, it grew plain that 
what he came to do was just to lead his life. 
That he should do the work, such as recorded, 
and much besides, that the Father gave him 
to do — this was the will of God concern- 
ing him. With this perception arose the con- 
viction that unto every man whom God had 
sent into the world he had given a work to do 
in the world. He had to lead the life God 
meant him to lead. The will of God was to 
be found and done in the world. In seeking 
a true relation to the world, would he find 
his relation to God ? geo. macdonald. 

Do that which is assigned thee and thou 
canst not hope too much or dare too much. 

EMERSON. 



260 September 11. 



For the lave of Christ constraineth us. — 
2 Cor. v. 14. 

As some rare perfume in a vase of clay 
Pervades it with a fragrance not its own, 

So when Thou dwellest in a mortal soul 
All heaven's own sweetness seems around it thrown. 

H. B. STOWE. 

The child begins by loving her father and 
mother. The child sees righteousness, truth, 
purity, patience, fidelity, love, in that father, 
that mother. This little child does not say 
first, I want to be like Christ. This little 
child does not know anything about Christ. 
And yet this little child already has the love 
of Christ in the heart, for this little child has 
the love of father and mother in the heart. 
This is the beginning of the love of Christ — 
the love of the Christly in someone else. 
Christ photographs himself on different lives, 
and we see gleams and hints of Christ in 
someone else, and we begin to love that 
gleam, that hint. And this child who sees in 
the father the Christly quality, but does not 
know it is Christly, and begins to love, is 
already loving Christ, though it is the Christ 
in fragment, the Christ in hint. Blessed is 
the child that has Christ incarnate in her 
mother or her father. lyman abbott. 



September 12, 



261 



He shall feed his flock like a shepherd : he 
shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry 
them in his bosom, — Is a. xl. 11. 

God, who the universe doth hold 

In his fold, 
Is my shepherd kind and heedful, 
Is my shepherd, and doth keep 



Me, his sheep, 
Still supplied with all things needful. 

F. DAVISON. 

Lo, my Shepherd's hand divine ! 
Want shall never more be mine. 
In a pasture fair and large 
He shall feed his happy charge ; 
And my couch, with tenderest care, 
Mid the springing grass prepare. 



HE same God who molded the sun and 



1 kindled the stars watches the flight of 
the insect. He who gave Saturn his rings 
gives the rose leaf its delicate tint and made 
the distant sun to nourish the violet. And 
the same being notices the praises of the 
cherubim and the prayer of a little child." 

Look up to him, the Good Shepherd, who 
laid down his life for the sheep, and pray him 
with his pierced hands to loose the thorns 
which hold thee, and to lay thee upon his 
shoulders ; yea, he will carry thee in his 
bosom. DR. PUSEY. 



MERRICK. 




262 September 13* 



Help thou me, — Psalm cxix. 86. 

'OUT how am I to gain this indescribable 
u good which so many seek, and so few 
fiad?" 

" . . . You thought I could give you help ?" 

" Yes ; that is why I came to you." 

" Just so; I cannot give you help. Go and 
ask it of one who can." 

"Speak more plainly." 

" Well, then : if there be a God he must 
hear you if you call to him. If there be a 
Father he will listen to his child. He will 
teach you everything." 

" But I don't know what I want." 

" He does; ask him to tell you what you 
want. It all comes back to the old story ! 
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good 
gifts to your children, how much more will 
your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to 
them that ask him ! But I wish you would 
read your New Testament — the Gospels, I 
mean ; you are not in the least fit to under- 
stand the Epistles yet. Read the story of our 
Saviour as if you had never read it before. 
He at least was a man who seemed to have 
that secret of life after the knowledge of 
•which your heart is longing." 

GEO. MACDONALD. 



September 14, 263 



Truly this is grief, and I must bear it. — Jer. 
x. 19. 

It were not hard to suffer by His hand 

If thou couldst see his face — but in the dark ! 

That is the one last trial. Be it so ; 

Christ was forsaken, so must thou be too : 

How couldst thou suffer but in seeming else ? 

Thou wilt not see the face nor feel the hand — 

Only the cruel crushing of the feet — 

When through the bitter night the Lord comes down 

To tread the winepress — not by sight, but faith. 

Endure, endure — be faithful to the end ! 

H. E. H. KING. 

Honest love, honest sorrow, 
Honest work for the day, honest hope for the morrow : 
Are these worth nothing more than the hand they make 
" weary, 

The heart they have sadden'd, the life they leave 
dreary ? 

Hush ! the sevenfold heavens to the voice of the 
Spirit 

Echo : He that o'ercometh shall all things inherit. 

OWEN MEREDITH. 

Is it not often at least, because we are so 
anxious to be happy in this world, so eager to 
grasp at a condition belonging not to here, 
but to hereafter, that we fret and fidget for 
what God has denied us ? Sidney lear. 

The burden of suffering seems a tomb- 
stone hung about our necks, while in reality 
it is only the weight which is necessary to 
keep down the diver while he is hunting for 
pearls. richter. 



26 4 September 15. 



See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. — 
Heb. xii. 25. 

Hearken, hearken : 



Using- the supreme voice which doth confound 
All life with consciousness of Deity, 
All senses into one ! It speaketh now 
Through the regular breath of the calm creation, 
Through the moan of the creature's desolation, 
Striking, and in its stroke resembling 
The memory of a solemn vow 
Which pierceth the din of a festival 
To one in the midst. 



ND shall we think to imprison the Deity 



within bounds ? We say that when we 
are uttering words of prayer we are in com- 
munion with him. But when and where are 
we out of communion with him ? When we 
are speaking words to him is that joy more 
in him than other joys ? Oh, our Father, we 
are with thee when we know it not ! All our 
springs are in thee. Make us clean, make us 
strong, that all our life may speak to thee and 
answer back thy love. 



God speaketh to thy soul, 



MRS. BROWNING. 




MARY EMILY CASE. 



September 16* 265 



Till we all come in the unity of the faith and 
of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a per- 
fect man, unto the measure of the stature of the 
fullness of Christ. — Eph. iv. 13. 

Set free the soul alike in all ! 

BROWNING. 

COMMERCE, if it is to be permanent and 
healthy, and progressive, must fall into 
line with the purpose nature was put upon its 
perilous course to subserve. Her countless 
forms of industry established by the law of 
supply and demand : her cars rushing 
hither and thither all round the world ; her 
great steamships on every sea ; her great 
furnaces, whose chimneys lift themselves 
against the sky, must get their meaning and 
reason for their existence from the fact that 
they are putting their contribution to the 
making of a man. Her wheels are to fly, her 
spindles are to whirl, her paddles are to splash, 
and her hammers are to ring, making music 
amid it all, in anticipation of his increasing 
worth, his growing thought, his enlarging 
hope. Her countless wheels of industry will 
be throwing out axes, wagons, plow stocks, 
hand saws, and reapers as they fly ; but these 
will be only so many means used to discipline 
the precious life committed for a while to her 
training. rev. j. w. lee., d. d. 

We never are, but are forever only becom- 
ing, that which it is possible to be. caird. 



266 September 17. 



Honor all men. — i Peter ii. 17. 

Say, Lord ! for thou alone canst tell, 
Where lurks the good invisible 
Amid the depths of discord's sea — 
That seem, alas ! so dark to me ? 

Haply the earthquake may unfold 
The resting- place of purest gold, 
And haply surges up have rolled 
The pearls that were unseen. 



HE Roman Senate never did a nobler act 



1 than when, after the stupendous defeat 
of Cannae, they went out to meet and thank 
the defeated general, because he had not de- 
spaired of the republic. Even so should all 
humanity thank the humble martyrs, the ob- 
scure benefactors, the unfamous faithful, who, 
amid toil and obloquy, defrauded of justice, 
hopeless of reward, deluded with ingratitude, 
have yet believed in the redeemableness of 
their brother men. They teach us to look to 
humanity in its ideal, not in its degradation ; 
in its angelhood, not in its pollution. Even 
in the vilest they see, as Christian saw, the 
living soul. canon farrar. 



VICTOR HUGO. 




September 18, 2 ^7 



Add to your faith , virtue j and to virtue^ 
knowledge. — 2 Peter i. 5. 

Mohammed's truth lay in a holy book — 
Christ's in a sacred life. 

HOUGHTON. 

WE hear men say that character is 
strengthened by experience of evil, 
and thus they account for the existence of 
such a world as this. If by evil they mean 
pain, toil, struggle, perhaps they are right. 
If they mean sin they are wrong. Sin always 
weakens character, never strengthens it. Un- 
tried innocence is not character. Untried 
innocence is weak. But guilt is not the only 
alternative. There is such a thing as tried 
innocence. That is character, that is strong. 
Temptation and sin are not the same. 

MARY EMILY CASE. 

Character is the only thing which we 
shall carry away from this fast fleeting life. 
Our body, touched by death, shall soon drop 
from us ; then what we are will remain, will 
pass on. john a. broadus. 

To be disinterested is to be strong, and 
the world is at the feet of him whom it can- 
not tempt. Why ? Because spirit is lord of 
matter, and the world belongs to God. " Be 
of good cheer ! " saith a heavenly voice. 
<l I have overcome the world." amiel. 



2 68 September td» 



Didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? 
from whence then hath it tares ^ — Matt. xiii. 27. 

All life is seed dropped in time's yawning furrow 

Which will slow sprout and shoot ; 
In the revolving world's unfathomed morrow 

Will blossom and bear fruit. 

MATHILDE BLIND. 

" There is no wrong, by anyone committed, 

But will recoil ; 
Its sure return, with double ill repeated, 

No skill can foil. 
As on the earth the mists it yields to heaven 

Descend in rain, 
So on his head whoe'er has evil given 

It falls again. 
It never fails, although the execution 

May tarry long." 



HE sower who casts in the seed, the 



1 father or mother casting in the fruitful 
word, are accomplishing a pontifical act, and 
ought to perform it with religious awe, with 
prayer and gravity, for they are laboring at 
the kingdom of God. All seed-sowing is a 
mysterious thing, whether the seed fall into 
the earth or into souls. amiel. 

Thy deeds now are the seed corn of eter- 
nity. Each single act, in each several day, 
good or bad, is a portion of that seed. 

DR. PUSEY. 




September 20* 26 9 



Thou shalt give unto the Lord thy God 
according as the Lord thy God hath blessed 
thee. — Deut. xvi. 10. 

" The heart grows rich in giving ; 

All its wealth is living grain, 
Seeds which mildew in the garden, 

Scattered, fill with gold the plain. 
Is thy burden hard and heavy ? 

Do thy steps drag wearily ? 
Help to bear thy brother's burden — 

God will bear both it and thee." 

THE taxes of Heaven are never per capita, 
but always pro rata. Not the formal 
observance of each and all alike, but every 
heart's best love, every hand's readiest serv- 
ice. Not the number of acres you till, but 
the quality of your tilling determines the 
profit of the harvest in spiritual as well as 
material farming. This standard exacts no 
promises, but it accepts no apologies ; for 
there is no occasion for an apology when you 
have done all you can. 

J. L. JONES. 

Begin with a generous heart. Think how 
you can serve others. Then you shall find 
resources to grow. Your own portion shall 
not be left desolate. Strength shall be shed 
through you. Do the utmost with what you 
have, and it shall go far enough. 

0. B. FROTHING HAM. 



27° September 21. 



/ laid me down and slept; I awaked, for the 
Lord sustained me. — Psalm iii. 5. 

The child leans on its parent's breast, 
Leaves there its cares and is at rest ; 
The bird sits singing by its nest, 

And tells aloud 
His trust in God, and so is blest 

'Neath every cloud. 

ISAAC WILLIAMS. 

TF we could thoroughly understand any- 
* thing, that would be enough to prove it 
undivine. . . The only and the greatest 
thing man is capable of is trust in God. 

GEO. MACDONALD. 

" Faintly trust ?" Nay! I will trust not 
faintly ; I will trust fully, freely, strongly. 
It must be all trust here, no sight — not even 
the smallest ray of light. To trust is hard. 
But if one can trust at all, why is it not as 
easy to trust perfectly as to trust faintly ? If 
I cannot think that God is perfect in justice, 
love, and power, in spite of all appearances 
to the contrary, then I will not trust him at 
all ; no, not one inch. But if I do think he 
is thus perfect, then I will trust him forever 
and for all. mary emily case. 



September 22* 271 



And Jesus went about all the cities and vil- 
lages, teaching in their synagogues, and preach- 
ing the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every 
sickness, and every disease among the people. 
— Matt. ix. 35. 

" The chief use, then, in man of that he knows 

Is his painstaking for the good of all : 
Not fleshly weeping for our own-made woes, 

Nor laughing from a melancholy gall ; 
Not hating from a soul that overflows 

With bitterness breathed out from inward thrall, 
But sweetly, rather, to ease, to loose, or bind, 

As need requires, this frail, fall'ii human kind." 



HERE are little things that leave us little 



regrets. I might have said kind words, 
and perhaps have done kind actions to many 
who now are beyond the reach of them. 
One look on the unfortunate might have 
given a day's happiness ; one sigh over the 
pillow of sickness might have insured a 
night's repose ; one whisper might have 
driven from their victim the furies of de- 
spair. 




WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR. 



2 7 2 September 23, 



As he which hath called you is holy, so be ye 
holy in all manner of conversation; because it 
is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. — i Peter 
i. 15, 16. 

How wonderful is man ! 
Though sullied and dishonored still divine, 
Dim miniature of greatness absolute. 

YOUNG. 

'Tis only noble to be good. 

TENNYSON. 

The things of earth 
Are copies of the things in heaven more close, 
More clear, more near, more intricately linked, 
More subtly, than men guess. 

EDWIN ARNOLD. 

\ A / HEN a man fills all his thoughts, and 
v * therefore all his life, with wicked aims 
and forbidden desires, he ignores the essen- 
tial and transcendent dignity of his immortal 
nature — the dignity of God's image upon him, 
the sign of his redemption, which was marked 
in baptism upon his forehead. Oh ! let us 
strive to cherish more and more in our hearts 
ere it be too late that honest and haughty 
self-respect which shrinks from every base- 
ness as from a stain. canon farrar. 

We believe that every man ought to be 
a temple of the living God. The life of a 
soul is sacred in every stage of its existence. 

MAZZINI. 



September 24, 2 73 



If any man be in Christ \ he is a new creature : 
old things are passed away j behold y all things 
are become new. — 2 Cor. v. 17. 



OU wander up the hillside through the for- 



1 ests, up by the side of streams and under 
the shadow of trees, and see nothing on either 
hand, until at last, with one step, you are 
upon the summit, and the landscape opens on 
either side. Church spire and village, home- 
stead and farm, the broad meadow, the mighty 
trees, the river winding through, and the 
distant hills — the whole landscape is before 
you at a flash. Many a man has been toiling 
on in ways of sin, darkness, and unbelief, 
until he at last came to the experience — he 
himself knowing not how — of the new birth, 
by the power of the Holy Spirit ; and all the 
great plans of God, all the vast charm of the 
Gospel, were opened to his mind in a flash, as 
the landscape opens before your eye. 



Give me to see Thee, and to feel 
The mental vision clear ; 



The things unseen reveal, reveal ! 
And let me know them near. 



JANE TAYLOR. 




R. S. STORRS. 



274 September 25, 



For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and 
the Spirit against the flesh. — Gal. v. 17. 

Nor may man on his shield 
Ever rest, for his foe is forever afield, 
Danger ever at hand, till the armed archangel 
Sound o'er him the trump of earth's final evangel. 

OWEN MEREDITH. 

IN such a being as man conflict were inevi- 
table. With a horizon measured by the 
edge of the plain where he stands on the 
one side, and a horizon melting into the 
infinite star depths on the other, it were but 
to be expected that a contest would arise 
between the larger and the lesser outlook. 
On the one side, he would possess the field, 
concentrate his attention upon its grasses and 
its fruits, and lose himself in its products. 
On the other, he would go forth to see where 
the stars are, to consider the sources of their 
light, and to travel with them along their 
silent paths. With a view measured by the 
hour that shuts him round on the one side, 
and with a view measured by the organic 
pulsations of the world on the other, the 
question would be, whether to give himself 
to the immediate pleasures of the hour, or 
to elongate the pendulum of his timepiece 
till it should embrace the ages, and regulate 
his life by an eternal measure. 

rev. j. w. lee, d. p. 



September 26. 



2 75 



Beloved^ thou does/ faithfully whatsoever thou 
doest.—z John 5. 

Art thou faithful ? Wake and watch : 
Love with all thy heart Christ's ways ; 

Seek not transient ease to snatch, 
Look not for reward or praise. 

Art thou faithful ? Stand apart 

From all worldly hope and pleasure ; 

Yonder fix thy hopes and heart, 

On the earth where lies our treasure. 

WINKLER. 

D ESULTS are not the true test of your 
A ^ course. The thing is to do right and 
trust all consequences to God. Do not suffer 
yourself to be disturbed whatever the result 
may be." 

The humblest man or woman can live 
splendidly. That is the royal truth we need 
to believe, you and I, who have no " mission," 
and no great sphere to move in. 

WM. GANNETT. 

Be not diverted from your duty by any idle 
reflections the silly world may make on you ; 
for their censures are not in your power, and 
consequently should be no part of your con- 
cern. EPICTETUS. 



2 7 6 



September 27, 



The water thai I shall give him shall be in 
him a well of water springing up into everlast- 
ing life— John iv. 14. 

Happy, I thought, that which can draw its life 

Deep from the nether springs, 
Safe 'neath the pressure, tranquil 'neath the strife 

Of surface things : 
Safe — for the sources of the nether springs 

Up in the far hill lie ; 
Calm — for their life its power and freshness brings 

Down from the sky. 



Give Me to drink ; without earth's citadel 
Thirsting I hang upon the bitter tree ; 

Give me to drink of thy scant water well, 
So shall I slake my mighty thirst for thee. 

Dost thou not hear my poor about thy portal, 
My Poor ask drink which cannot stay thirst's pain ? 

I am the Well of Life, the Fount Immortal, 
Which whoso drinks shall never thirst again ; 

And I have said : Who hath for mine outpoured 
One draught of earth shall lose not his reward. 



HEREVER the water of life is received 



y y it sinks and softens and hollows, until 
it reaches, far down, the springs of life there 
also, that come straight from the eternal hills, 
and thenceforth there is in that soul a well of 
water springing up into everlasting life. 



JOHN KER, 



MORGAN. 




GEO. MACDONALD, 



September 28. 277 



// doth not yet appear what we shall be. — 
1 John iii. 2. 

By things which do appear 
We judge amiss. The flower, which wears its way- 
Through stony chinks, lives on from day to day, 
Approved for living — let the rest be gay 
And sweet as summer ! Heaven within the reed 
Lists for the flute note ; in the folded seed 
It sees the bud, and in the will the deed. 

• D. GREENVVELL. 

There's no one to whom's not given 

Some little lineament of heaven, 

Some partial symbol, at the least, in sign, 

Of what should be, if it is not within, 

Reminding of the death of sin 
And life of the Divine. 

Though not inheritors as yet 

Of all your own right royal things, 
Yet are ye angels in disguise — 

Angels who have not found your wings. 

SUTTON. 

YOU look upon the tiny egg, so fragile and 
small, and wonder, by and by, at the 
eagle soaring above the clouds, breasting the 
tempest, riding over the hurricane, seeking 
the sun ! You look into this spirit of man, in 
which is the new birth, in which is the infant 
soul just converted into Christ, and it seems 
a slight thing ; but all the vision and the 
ecstasy of heaven, all the immortal experi- 
ence, all the unsearchable glory, are folded 
in that tiny experience of love. 

R. S. STORRS. 



2 7 8 



September 29. 



Now are they many members, yet one body. . . 
The members should have the same care one for 
another —i Cor. xii. 20, 25. 

Give me an heart that beats 
In all its pulses with the common heart 
Of human kind, which the same things make glad, 
The same make sorry. 

TRENCH. 

One God ! one law ! one element ! 
And one far-off, divine event 

To which the whole creation moves ! 

TENNYSON. 

TT is intended that all the oceans of life 
* shall reach, through their waves, the shores 
of each man's being, and leave deposits of 
all their wealth in each man's spirit. . . All 
the men in the world must touch each man 
to call forth the capacities which lie folded 
within his life. Humanity, as parceled out 
in nations, generations, epochs, must lift it- 
self into the being of each man ; as the ocean, 
parceled out in Atlantics, Pacifies. Indians, 
Arctics, Antarctics, lifts itself into each wave. 

REV. J. W. LEE, D. D. 

I would have you be . . . like a fire well 
kindled, which catches at everything you 
throw in, and turns it into flame and bright- 
ness. MARCUS AURELIUS. 



September 30, 2 79 



Canst thou by searching find out God ? — Job 
xi. 7. 

Heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ : 
if so be that we suffer with him. — Rom. viii. 17. 

The one named Christ I sought for many days 

In many places vainly ; 
I heard men name his name in many ways, 

I saw his temples plainly ; 
But they who named him most gave me no sign 
To find him by, or prove the heirship mine. 

And when at last I stood before his face 

I knew him by no token 
Save subtle air of joy which filled the place ; 

Our greeting was not spoken ; 
In solemn silence I received my share, 
Kneeling before my brother and " joint heir." 



iVl covered or imagined such a being. The 
God of whom Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 
whom the prophets and kings of Israel, dimly 
saw, whom the Messiah of Israel and Re- 
deemer of the world makes manifest, the 
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in 
the face of Jesus Christ. " Canst thou by 
searching find out God ? " No ; but he can 
find out me. There stands the record 
written. He has come to search for men. 
Our Father can and does make himself known 
to his children. mary emily case. 



h, H. 




Not mine because I have dis- 



280 



©ctober !♦ 



THE SLEEP. 

Of all the thoughts of God that are 
Borne inward into souls afar, 

Along the Psalmist's music deep, 
Now tell me if there any is, 
For gift or grace surpassing this — 

" He giveth his beloved sleep ? 99 

What would we give to our beloved ? 
The hero's heart to be unmoved, 

The poet's star-tuned harp to sweep, 
The patriot's voice to teach and rouse, 
The monarch's crown to light the brows ? 

He giveth his beloved sleep. 

What do we give to our beloved ? 
A little faith all undisproved, 

A little dust to ovenveep, 
And bitter memories to make 
The whole earth blasted for our sake : 

He giveth his beloved sleep. 

" Sleep soft, beloved ! " we sometimes say, 
Who have no tune to charm away 

Sad dreams that thro' the eyelids creep ; 



©ctober 1. 



281 



But never doleful dream again 
Shall break the happy slumber when 
He giveth his beloved sleep. 

O earth, so full of dreary noises ! 
O men, with wailing in your voices ! 

O delved gold, the wailers heap ! 
O strife, O curse, that o'er it fall ! 
God strikes a silence through you all, 

And giveth his beloved sleep. 

His dews drop mutely on the hill, 
His cloud above it saileth still, 

Though on its slope men sow and reap ; 
More softly than the dew is shed, 
Or cloud is floated overhead, 

He giveth his beloved sleep. 

For me, my heart that erst did go 
Most like a tired child at show, 

That sees through tears the mummers leap, 
Would now its wearied vision close, 
Would childlike on his Love repGse, 

Who giveth his beloved sleep. 

MRS. BROWNING. 



282 



©ctober 2* 



The fruit of the Spirit is . . . peace. — Gal. 
v. 22. 

" When Christ across the tempest of our will 
Walketh in grandeur, saying, ' Peace, be still/ 
Then shall the surging cares within us cease, 
And we find peace." 



Y peace I give unto you." They were 



11 words he had known from earliest 
memorial time. He had heard them in in- 
fancy, in childhood, in boyhood, in youth ; 
now first in manhood it flashed upon him 
that the Lord did really mean that the peace 
of his soul should be the peace of their souls ; 
that the peace wherewith his own soul was 
quiet, the peace at the very heart of the uni- 
verse, was henceforth theirs — open to them, 
to all the world, to enter and be still. He 
fell upon his knees, bowed down in the 
birth of a great hope, held up his hands 
toward heaven, and cried, " Lord Christ, give 
me thy peace." . . He had learned what the 
sentence meant ; what that was of which it 
spoke he had not yet learned. 




GEO. MACDONALD. 



His will is our peace. 



DANTE. 



October 3* 



283 



Boast not thyself of to-morrow ; for thou 
knowest not what a day may bring forth, — Prov. 
xxvii. 1. 

" So here hath been dawning 



Another blue day : 
Think, wilt thou let it 
Slip useless away? 

" Out of eternity 

This new day is born, 
Into eternity 

At night doth return." 



ORK while you have light," especially 



y r while you have the light of morning. 
There are few things more wonderful to me 
than that old people never tell young ones 
how precious their youth is. They sometimes 
sentimentally regret their earlier days, some- 
times prudently forget them ; often foolishly 
rebuke the young, often more foolishly in- 
dulge, often most foolishly thwart and re- 
strain, but scarcely ever warn or watch them. 
Remember then, that I at least, have warned 
you that the happiness of your life, and its 
power and its part and rank in earth or in 
heaven depend on the way you pass your 
days now. ruskin. 




284 



©ctober 4. 



For I say, through the grace given unto me, to 
every man that is among you, not to think of him- 
self more highly than he ought to think. — Rom. 



OTHING is so simple in our weak and 



1 " imperfect state as to yield to exaggera- 
tion and error. One might say that nothing 
is so catholic as error, for nothing is so uni- 
versal. What really harms us is our obstinacy, 
our haughty and absurd attachment to our 
own opinions. mme. swetchine. 

"It is easy for us to confess that we are 
miserable sinners, but it is not easy for us to 
confess that our judgment may be at fault." 

I do not doubt but that the mind is a less 
pleasant thing to look at than the face, and 
for that very reason it needs more looking at ; 
so always have two mirrors on your toilet 
table, and see that with proper care you 
dress body and mind before them daily. 
After the dressing is once over for the day, 
think no more about it. ruskin. 

Nothing is more scandalous than a man 
that is proud of his humility. 



Xll. 3. 




MARCUS AURELIUS. 



October 5, 



285 



O sing unto the Lord a new song : sing unto 
the Lord, all the earth. — Psalm xcvi. 1. 

Serve the Lord with gladness. — Psalm c. 2. 

" He who bends himself to joy 
Does the winged life destroy ; 
But he who kisses the joy as it flies 
Lives in eternity's sunrise." 

A LL joy, save that which is found in sin- 



ning, is to my thought religious joy. 
Body and soul reach out, so God has willed 
it, for that which fills their need. God 
giveth joy, full, many-sided, deep, and rich. 
Is it not all his joy ? Why, then, call it less 
than religion, as if it were outside of him ? 
Why wish to lessen it ? There is no need to 
lessen any joy to make room for any other. 
The human heart is not an inclosed space. 
It grows with that which fills it. Shall we 
make ourselves less than God has made us ? 



" Let us try to make our lives like songs, 
brave, cheery, tender, and true, that shall sing 
themselves into other lives, and so help to 
lighten burdens and cares." 

All godlike things are joyous. They have 
touched God. faber. 




MARY EMILY CASE. 



286 



©ctober 6* 



Ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so 
be that the spirit of God dwell in you. — Rom. 
viii. 9. 

T ET it be your method to contemplate 



spirits apart from the shell they are 



Man, as a spirit, is, after God, the most 
universal of all facts. He is illimitable in 
more ways than space, remaining when all 
events of time have passed, and with a nature 
dipping into the eternal spirit of God. . . 
In God man lives, moves, and has his being. 
In finding God man finds himself. In the 
revelation of God is the revelation of man. 
God is a spirit and man is a spirit ; but man, 
as a relative spirit, comes to himself in God, 
the absolute spirit ; as the life germ of the 
acorn comes to itself in the natural condi- 
tions of soil and sky which environ it. 




shut up in. 



MARCUS AURELIUS. 



REV. J. W. LEE, D. D. 



The man is the spirit he worked in ; not 
what he did, but what he became. 

CARLYLE, 



©ctober 7* 



287 



And the Lord make you to increase and 
abound in love one toward another, and toward 
all men. — 1 Thess. iii. 12. 

An arm of aid to the weak, 

A friendly hand to the friendless, 

Kind words so short to speak, 
But whose echo is endless — 

The world is wide, these things are small, 

They may be nothing — but they are all. 

LORD HOUGHTON. 

" Is thy cruise of comfort wasting ? 
Rise, and share it with another, 
And through all the years of famine 
It shall serve thee and thy brother." 

TT is far easier to feel kindly, to act kindly, 
* toward those with whom we are seldom 
brought into contact, whose tempers and 
prejudices do. not rub against ours, whose 
interests do not clash with ours, than to keep 
up an habitual, steady, self-sacrificing love 
toward those whose weaknesses and faults 
are always forcing themselves upon us, and 
are stirring up our own. A man may pass 
good muster as a philanthropist who makes 
but a poor master to his servants or father 
to his children. maurice. 

" So loving was St. Francis that he remem- 
bered those that God had seemingly for- 
gotten," 



288 



©ctober 8. 



The Father of mercies, and the God of all 
comfort ; who comforteth us in all our tribula- 
tion^ that we may be able to comfort them which 
are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we 
ourselves are comforted of God. — 2 Cor. i. 3, 4. 

Gethsemane ! joy hath not flowers so sweet 
As those which cluster on thine olive slope ; 

Beneath the crimson sheen of Jesus' feet 
Springs up the blossom of a deathless hope. 

Oh, not as I, but as thou wilt, my Lord ; 

I will not put aside thy cup of pain ; 
Sorrow is turned to gladness at thy word, 

And life's Gethsemane becomes a gain. 



"f^OMFORT does not come to the light- 



^ hearted and merry. We must go down 
into "the depths" if we would experience 
this most precious of God's gifts, comfort, 
and thus be prepared to be coworkers 
together with him." 

When night — needful night — gathers over 
the garden of our souls, when the leaves 
close up and the flowers no longer hold any 
sunlight within their folded petals, there shall 
never be wanting, even in the thickest dark- 
ness, drops of heavenly dew — dew which falls 
only when the sun has gone. 



ALAN BRODRICK. 




JU ANITA S CROSS, 



©ctober 9* 



289 



Ye are the light of the world. — Matt. v. 14. 

If peace be in the heart 
The wildest winter storm is full of solemn beauty, 
The midnight lightning flash but shows the path of 
duty. 

Each living creature tells some new and joyous story ; 
The very trees and stones all catch a ray of glory. 

C. F. RICHARDSON. 

A COLD firebrand and a burning lamp 
started out one day to see what they 
could find. The firebrand came back and 
wrote in its journal that the whole world was 
dark. It did not find a place, wherever it 
went, in which there was light. Everywhere 
was darkness. The lamp, when it came back, 
wrote in its journal, " Wherever I went it 
was light." What was the difference ? The 
lamp carried light with it, and when it went 
abroad it illumined everything about it. The 
dead firebrand carried no light, and it found 
none where it went. 

It is in the power of the soul to carry its 
light with it. Are you hedged in on every 
side? You have the power if you know 
how to use it of making your circumstances 
pleasant. Are those fountains from which 
you have been wont to derive comfort 
stopped up ? You do not need them. You 
can develop fountains of comfort in your- 
selves. BEECHER. 



290 



October 1<X 



/ will lift up mine eyes unto the hills f from 
whence cometh my help. — Psalm cxxi. 1- 

Beckon us upward, ye sky-loving peaks, 
Whose home is far above these vales of sin ; 

'Tis earth around us, but beyond there breaks 
A light which bids us rise and enter in. 

The sun is on your heights ; and from those cliffs 
It speaks to us of love and glory there ; 

Like some fresh joyous angel that alights 
To call us upward to the good and fair. 

HORATIUS BONAR. 

What I aspired to be, 
And was not, comforts me. 

BROWNING. 

THE eagle's emblem is Sublimius, to fly 
higher, even to behold the sun in his 
splendor ; the sun'semblem is Celerius, swifter, 
as a giant refreshed, to run his course ; the 
wheat in the Gospel hath this emblem, Per- 
fectius, riper, first the blade, then the ear, 
then the full corn. So ought every Chris- 
tian to mount loftier with the eagle, to run 
swifter with the sun, to wax riper with the 
wheat, till they come to the height of per- 
fection in Christ Jesus. 

D. PRICE, 1609. 

I am not what I was ; I am not what I 
would be; I am not what I should be; I am not 
what I shall be; but " by the grace of God I 
am what I arn^ john newton. 



©ctober 11, 



291 



Be strong, and of a good coitrage : I will not 
fail thee, nor forsake thee. — Joshua i. 6, 5. 

Fear thou not, for I am with thee. — Isa. 
xli. 10. 

" Everlasting arms of love 
Are beneath, around, above ; 
God it is who bears us on, 
His the arm we lean upon. 
He, our ever present guide, 
Faithful is, whate'er betide ; 
Gladly, then, we journey on, 
With his arm to lean upon." 

What's midnight doubt before the day spring's faith ? 

BROWNING. 

WE must be childlike enough to trust 
our Father ... as well with his re- 
fusals as with his gifts, his silence as his 
speech. What need to scrutinize or under- 
stand his ways ? It suffices that they are his, 
and we are sure that all is well ; that love is 
there, and the fruits of love not far away. 

E. F. RUSSELL. 

Be not anxious about little things if thou 
wouldst learn to trust God with thine all. 
Act upon faith in little things ; commit thy 
daily cares and anxieties to him, and he will 
strengthen thy faith for greater trials that 
may come. Rather give thy whole self into 
God's hands, and so trust him to take care 
of thee in all lesser things as being his, for 
his own sake whose thou art. 

PR, pusey. 



292 



October 12. 



He that is slow to anger is better than the 
mighty : and he that ruleth his spirit than he 
that taketh a city. — Prov. xvi. 32. 

'Tis a good thing sometimes to be alone, 
Sit calmly down, search every secret place, 

Prayerful uproot the baneful seeds there sown, 

Pluck out the weeds ere the full crop is grown, 
Gird up the loins afresh to run the. race, 
Foster all noble thoughts, cast out the ba?e, 

Thrust forth the bad, and make the good thine own. 

Who has this courage thus to look within, 

Keep faithful watch and ward with inner eyes ; 
The foe may harass, but can ne'er surprise, 

Or over him ignoble conquest win. 

Oh, doubt it not, if thou wouldst wear the crown, 
Self, baser self, must first be trampled down. 



\ A/E need to watch ourselves and not 
" * others ; I have more trouble to watch 
myself than to watch my neighbors. 

D. L. MOODY. 

"We talk and think so much of the trouble 
we have with others that we more than half 
persuade ourselves that if everybody else 
were just right we could get on pretty easily 
in life ; but the fact is that more than half — 
a great deal more than half — of all our 
troubles, even of our troubles with others, 
grow out of our own faults and our own fail- 
ures. Sunday Sehool Times. 



JOHN ASKHAM. 




©ctobet 13* 



293 



Whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the 
same shall he receive of the Lord. — Eph. vi. 8. 

They that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, 



" Far in the distant years some deed of beauty 
Hath struck the keynote of a bold refrain, 
And many a noble act and high-souled duty 
Led on a lofty strain. 

44 Ah ! glad the gathering when our time is ended 
Of all the influence that one life hath cast, 
The souls that through such earnest words have 
tended 

Upward to heaven at last." 
\TO thought, no word, no act of man ever 



1 ^ dies. They are as immortal as his own 
soul. Somewhere in this world he will meet 
their fruits in part ; somewhere in the future 
life he will meet their gathered harvest." 

Be what you would make others. 



If you prepare a dish of food carelessly 
you do not expect Providence to make it 
palatable ; neither if, through years of folly, 
you misguide your own life, need you expect 
divine interference to bring round everything 
at last for the best. ruskin. 



reap the same. — Job iv. 8. 




AMIEL. 



294 



October t4. 



And he shewed me a pure river of water of 
life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the 
throne of God.— Ret. xxii. i. 



L' Its tide is silvery to those who are on it, 
but threatening to those who approach it 
seldom." 

" Then what is my next duty ? What is 
the thing that lies nearest to me ? " 

" That, I repeat, belongs to your everyday 
history. No one can answer that question but 
yourself. Your next duty is just to deter- 
mine what your next duty is. Is there noth- 
ing you neglect ? Is there nothing you know 
you ought not to do ? You would know your 
duty if you thought in earnest about it, and 
were not ambitious of great things. 

" Ah, then," responded Lady Georg lan a, 
with an abandoning sigh, " I suppose it is 
something very commonplace, which will make 
life more dreary than ever. That cannot 
help me." 

" It will, if it be as dreary as reading the 
newspapers to an old deaf aunt. It will soon 
lead you to something more. Your duty 
will not begin to comfort you at once, but will 
at length open the unknown fountain in your 
heart." george macdoxald. 

Every duty omitted obscures some truth 
we should know. ruskin. 




runs through life. 



October 15. 



2 95 



A glorious church, not having spot or 
wrinkle . . . but holy and without blemish. — 
Eph. v. 27. 

TN Christ we may all join in one spirit, and 
* so form one body, whatever be the diver- 
sity of worship, doctrine, or taste. 

MARIA HARE. 

The Church composed of men united, not 
by promises or sacraments, but by deeds of 
truth and love, has always lived and will live 
forever. tolstoi. 

If the poor forsake a Church, be sure that 
the Church forsook God long before. 

THEODORE PARKER. 

This idea of working in the Church toward 
personal fellowship and personal unity and 
sympathy is far more prevalent in the New 
Testament than in theology. beecher. 

Let us learn, then, brother men, that we 
shall have no family in God unless we learn 
the deep truth of our common humanity, 
shared in by servant and sinner as well as sov- 
ereign. Without this we shall have no Church 
—no family in God. f. w. robertsox. 



296 



©ctober 16, 



If any man will do his will, he shall know of 
the doctrine. — John vii. 17. 

Wait, nor against the half-learned lesson fret, 
Nor chide at old belief as if it erred, 

Because thou canst not reconcile as yet 
The worker and the word. 

JEAN INGELOW. 

^pHE power of the doctrine of Jesus is not 
A in its explanation of the meaning of life, 
but in the rules that it gives for the conduct 
of life. TOLSTOI. 

Gradually we attain the truth that every 
creed is illustrated by good men who are 
entitled to our respect, but whom we cannot 
respect without courtesy to their creed. 

LEW. WALLACE. 

I think it is better to believe a little in- 
tensely than a great deal doubtfully. 

E. D. RAND. 

Holy living is transcendently dearer to 
God, and more necessary for man, than theo- 
retic orthodoxy and outward conformities. 

CANON FARRAR. 



" Ask not a man's creed ! Ask his need ! " 



October 17, 



297 



Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith 
Christ hath made us f ree. — Gal. v. i. 

God works for all ; ye cannot hem the hope of being 
free 

With parallels of latitude, with mountain range or 
sea. 

LOWELL. 

THE brute is free from the binding force 
of moral law ; the more slave he. The 
man is free because he is bound. He is free 
to control his appetites by bringing them 
under obedience to the law. This is the only 
freedom worthy the name. Nobody does as 
he pleases but he who pleases to do right. 
He who like the animals follows impulse 
does a thousand things which by no means 
please him after they are done. He is in 
leadingstrings. . . 

The young and the superficial think that to 
be free from rules means to do the things 
which the rules forbid. On the contrary, a 
man may be quite as free in obeying laws as 
in disregarding them. 

God made us to be free. How is it that, 
freeborn sons of God, we are ready to sell 
ourselves daily for so small a price ? We 
have been Satan's bondservants, and the 
habits of our servitude are strong upon us, 
When shall we stand fast in the liberty with 
which Christ has made us free? 

MARY EMILY CASE. 



298 



©ctober 18, 



Come, ?ny people, enter thou into thy chambers, 
and shut thy doors about thee. — Isa. xxvi. 20. 

When first thy eyes unveil give thy soul leave 
To do the like ; our bodies but forerun 

The spirit's duty. True hearts spread and heave 
Unto their God, as flowers do to the sun. 

Give him thy first thoughts, then ; so shalt thou keep 

Him company all day, and in him sleep. 



IVE minutes spent in the companionship 



of Christ every morning — aye, two min- 
utes, if it is face to face and heart to heart — 
will change the whole day, will make every 
thought and feeling different, will enable you 
to do things for his sake that you would not 
have done for your own sake, or for anyone's 
sake. DRUMMOND. 

One hour a week, or one afternoon or a 
part of it in a month, given seriously, and 
with complete determination of purpose, to 
thinking out, wrestling out, praying out the 
question of your soul's real relation to the 
eternal future, would be, indeed, time well and 
economically spent. dr. liddon. 

Let our prayers, like the ancient sacrifices, 
ascend morning and evening. Let our days 
begin and end with God. channing. 



HENRY VAUGHAN. 




©ctober 10. 



299 



O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. 
Thou knowest my down sitting and mine up- 
rising, thou understandest my thought afar off. — 
Psalm cxxxix. 1, 2. 

He, the wise, the everlasting, 

Giveth heed, 

Knows each need, 
As through the world I'm hasting. 
Shall my Father e'er forget me ? 

His the will 

I fulfill ; 
My measure he hath set me. 

TSCHOKKE. 

" Is it true, O Christ in heaven, 
That, whichever way we go, 
Walls of darkness must surround us, 
Things we would but cannot know ? " 

T HAVE had to do that in past days, to 
challenge Him through outer darkness and 
the silence of night, till I almost expected 
that he would vindicate his own honor by ap- 
pearing visibly as he did to St. Paul and St. 
John ; but he answered in the still, small 
voice only ; yet that was enough. 

CHARLES KINGSLEY. 

He is our pilot. He sits at the stern ; 
and though the ship be in a sinking condi- 
tion, yet be of good comfort : our pilot will 
have a care of us. edmund calamy. 



306 



©ctober 20. 



And ye shall know the truth, and the truth 
shall make thee free. — John viii. 32. 

Thou must be true thyself 

If thou the truth wouldst teach ; 

Thy soul must overflow if thou 
Another's soul wouldst reach ; 

It needs the overflow of heart 
To give the life full speech. 

Think truly, and thy thoughts 
Shall the world's famine feed ; 

Speak truly, and each word of thine 
Shall be a faithful seed ; 

Live truly, and thy life shall be 
A great and noble creed. 



RUTH is strong next to the Almighty ; 



1 she needs no policies, no stratagems, no 
licensings, to make her victorious ! Though 
all the winds of doctrine were let loose to 
play upon the earth, so truth be in the field, 
we injure her to misdoubt her strength. Let 
truth and falsehood grapple : who ever knew 
truth put to the worse in a free and open 
encounter ? milton. 

We need never be alarmed at the perilous 
situation of truth. Of all things in this world 
that is the one thing which is best capable of 
taking care of itself. e. d. rand. 



bonar. 




©ctobev 21. 



301 



Love seeketh not its otvn. — 1 Cor. xiii. 5. 
(R. V). 

Love took up the harp of life and smote on all the 

chords with might, 
Smote the chord of self, that, trembling, pass'd in 

music out of sight. 

TENNYSON. 

If you loved only what were worth your love, 
Love were clear gain, and wholly well for you. 
Make the low nature better by your throes, 
Give earth yourself, go up for gain above ! 

BROWNING. 

WILLINGNESS to do something which 
costs effort, and the more secretly the 
better ; willingness to undergo something 
which costs pain, and the more secretly the 
better, — these are the fundamental tests of a 
true Christian life. They prove that the 
spirit of the Church or the man in which they 
are found is at one with the spirit of the 
divine Redeemer. dr. liddon. 

So long as a man seeketh his own will 
and his own highest good, because it is his, 
and for his own sake, he will never find it ; 
for so long as he doeth this he is not seeking 
his own highest good, and how, then, should 
he find it ? theologia germanica. 

In the life of love we die to self, but it is 
the death not of annihilation, but of transmi- 
gration. C AIRE). 



3- 2 



Octobcr 22. 



Whosoever therefore shall break one of these 
lea si commandments, and shall teach men to do 
so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of 
heaven ; but whosoever shall do, and teach them, 
the same shall be called great in the kingdom of 
heaven. — Matt. v. 19. 

AXLY he who lives a life of his own can 
^ help the lives of other men. 

PHILLIPS BROOKS. 

At the portieres of that silent Faubourg St. 

Germain there is but brief question. " Do 
you deserve to enter ? Pass." " Do you 
ask to be the companion of nobles ? Make 
yourself noble and you shall be. Do you 
long for the conversation of the wise ? Learn 
to understand it and you shall hear it. But 
on no other terms ? No. If you will not rise 
to us we cannot stoop to you." 

RUSKIN. 



It is not what he has, nor even what he 
ck>es, which directly expresses the worth of 
a man. but what he is. amiel. 



October 23. 



What I do thou knowest net now ; but thou 
shalt know hereafter. — John xiii. 17. 

Like a blind spinner in the sun 

I tread my days ; 
I know that all the threads will run 

Appointed ways ; 
I know each day will bring- its task, 
And, being blind, no more I ask. 

H. H. 

" It may be He is keeping, 

For the coming of my feet, 
Some gift of such rare blessedness, 

Some joy so strangely sweet, 
That my lips will only murmur 
The thanks they cannot speak." 

God's ways seem dark, but soon or late 
They touch the shining hills of day. 

WHITTIER. 

QOME day He will tell you why he has tried 
^ you, and let you look back upon your 
life story, and see the golden thread of his 
fatherly love and care shining over and 
around it all. F. r. havergal. 

Thus was I standing in the porch of that 
" sanctuary of sorrow "j by strange steep 
ways had I too been guided thither, and ere 
long its sacred gates would open, and the 
" divine depth of sorrow " lie disclosed to 
me. CARLYLE. 



©ctober 24* 



The Lord hath need of him. — Luke xix. 34. 

Small service is true service while it lasts ; 

Of friends, however humble, spurn not one ; 
The daisy, by the shadow that it casts, 

Protects the lingering dewdrop from the sun. 

WORDSWORTH. 

MAN'S whole duty to man is service ; and 
therefore everybody is somebody's serv- 
ant, and he stands highest who best serves 
the greatest number." 

If there is a place for you, then assuredly if 
you wait on the Lord you will find it, and 
having found it, you will know what the Lord 
hath need of. The porters in the temple 
were as numerous as the singers, and the 
watching of the gates was as needful as the 
service of song. Those who stand by night 
in the house of the Lord are as much in serv- 
ice as the players on musical instruments in 
the morning. To know the Lord's will and 
to do it is service. anna shipton. 

The noblest end of life is to live for the 
service of God. And everything is in his 
service by which we can be or give a blessing 
to another. 



There is but one way to heaven — the way 
of self-denial, self-sacrifice, and unselfish 
service, lyman abbott. 



October 25, 



305 



In the way of righteousness is life. — Prov. 
xii. 28. 

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting ; 

The soul that rises with us, our life's star, 
Hath had elsewhere its setting, 

And cometh from afar. 
Not in entire forgetfulness, 
And not in utter nakedness, 
But trailing clouds of glory, do we come 

From God, who is our home. 



" Nothing that there is can fall beyond Him; 
His larger life ye cannot miss 
In gladly, nobly using this." 



IFE is a problem. Be sure that you solve 



^ it correctly, as it can never be done but 
once." 

Is there not something in the daily familiar 
course of life which seems in a strange way 
to veil its true aspect ? It is not death, but 
life, which wraps us about with shroud and 
cerement. dora greenwell. 

Life only avails, not having lived. 



WORDSWORTH. 




EMERSON. 



All life in which there is any value is a life 

With God, LYMAN ABBOTT, 



306 



©ctober 26. 



And we know that all things work together 
for good to them that love God. — Rom. viii. 28. 



No shattered box of ointment 

We ever can regret, 
For out of disappointment 

Flow sweetest odors yet. 

The discord that involveth 

Some startling change of key, 
The master's hand resolveth 

In richest harmony. 

F. R. HAVERGAL. 



OW can you enjoy music ... if you are 



1 1 not in harmony with the heart and 
the source of music ?..-." 

" Until the human heart knows the divine 
heart it must sigh and complain like a petu- 
lant child, who flings his toys from him be- 
cause his mother is not at home. When his 
mother comes back to him he finds his toys 
are good still. When we find Him in our 
hearts we shall find him in everything, and 
music will be deep enough then." 



Life's shadows are to be chased by the 
light of eternity's day, and its tumult hushed 
by the repose of eternity's harmony. 




GEO. MACDONALD. 



REV. J. W. LEE, D. D. 



October 27* 



3°7 



In whose hand is the soul of every living 
thing. — Job. xii. 10. 

I wonder if ever a song was sung 
But the singer's heart sang sweeter, 

I wonder if ever a rhyme was rung 
But the thought surpassed the meter. 

J. C. HARVEY. 

^"pHE aesthetic element in man's nature was 



vided for it. But it was to be God's almoner : 
having received it, also freely to give it. 
Thus it was to be the power whose function 
should be to put the whole of life into terms 
of harmony. Bernard Palissy put his ideal 
into a white enamel for his pottery ; Colum- 
bus worked his ideal into a new world ; 
Morse left his in the electric telegraph ; 
Cyrus W. Field turned his into the submarine 
cable ; and Alexander G. Bell has given his 
to the world in the telephone. It is not to be 
inferred, however, that those who work their 
ideals out in the useful arts contribute more 
to the making of men than those who ex- 
press their ideals in poetry, painting, sculp- 
ture, or music. The tendency of beauty to 
ordinary work and relations of life is an 
intimation that all life should be beautiful in 
itself, and in all expressions which it makes 
of itself. 




the beauty pro- 



REV. J. W. LEE, D. P, 



3 o8 



October 28. 



I must work the works of him that se?it me. 
— John ix. 4. 

" 'Tis not thy work the master needs, but thee— 
The obedient spirit, the believing heart." 

IT is told of Leonardo da Vinci that while 
still a pupil, before his genius burst into 
brilliancy, he received a special inspiration 
in this way : His old and famous master, 
because of his growing infirmities of age, 
felt obliged to give up his own work, and 
one day bade Da Vinci finish for him a pic- 
ture, which he had begun. The young man 
had such reverence for his master's skill that 
he shrank from the task. The old artist, 
however, would not accept any excuse, but 
persisted in his command, saying simply, 
" Do your best." 

Da Vinci at last tremblingly seized the 
brush and kneeling before the easel prayed : 
" It is for the sake of my beloved master that 
I implore skill and power for this undertak- 
ing." As he proceeded his hand grew steady, 
his eye awoke with slumbering genius. He 
forgot himself and was filled with enthusiasm 
for his work. When the painting was fin- 
ished the old master was carried into the 
studio to pass judgment on the result. His 
eye rested on a triumph of art. Throwing 
his arms around the young artist, he ex- 
claimed, "My son, I paint no more !" 

J. R. MILLER, 



©ctober 20. 



309 



Lord, it is nothing with ihee to help, whether 
with many or with them that have no power. 
Help us, O Lord our God j for we rest in thee. 
— 2 Chron. xiv. 11. 

" We need not be afraid of anything, 
Because we are the children of the King." 

VTOTHING is sure in this world but the 
■ ^ purposes of God. No interests are safe 
but his, no cause is secure but his. . . No 
wedge can be driven between to separate 
him from us, his interests from ours. The 
sacredness and eternity of divine ownership 
are pledged to our success. By the right of 
creation we belong to God. By the right of 
faithful and undying friendship we belong to 
God. By the right of purchase with the 
blood of Christ we belo?ig to God. Will God 
desert his own with such rights as these ? 

AUSTIN PHELPS. 

I have been driven many times to my 
knees by the overwhelming conviction that I 
had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom 
and that of all about me seemed insufficient 
for that day. 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



©ctober 30* 



Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters. — 
Isa. xxxii. 20. 

What though unmarked the happy workman toil, 
And break unthanked of men the stubborn clod ? 

It is enough, for sacred is the soil, 
Dear are the hills of God. 

JEAN INGELOW. 

A CCURATE and careful detail, the minding 
of the common occasions and small things, 
combined with general scope and vigor, is the 
secret of all the efficiency and success in the 
world. It is only thus that any disciple will 
become efficient in the service of his Master. 
He cannot do up his works of usefulness by 
the prodigious stir and commotion of a few 
extraordinary occasions. Laying down great 
plans, he must accomplish them by great in- 
dustry, by minute attention, by working out 
his way as God shall assist him. 

HORACE BUSHNELU 

In thy book, O Lord, are written all those 
that do what they can, though they cannot do 
what they would. 

ST. AUGUSTINEr 



October 31. 



311 



Now is the accepted time. — 2 Cor. vi. 2. 

He who bends to himself a joy 
Does the winged life destroy, 
But he who kisses the joy as it flies 
Lives in eternity's sunrise. 

If you trap the moment before it's ripe 
The tears of repentance you'll certainly wipe, 
But if once you let the moment go 
You can never wipe off the tears of woe. 



"The distant hills are darkness, but 

The morrow brings the morrow's light ; 
This much is ours — to-day to do 
The present right." 



HE misspents of every minute are a new 



1 record against us in heaven. Sure, if we 
thought thus, we should dismiss them with 
better reports, and not suffer them to fly away 
empty, or laden with dangerous intelligence. 
How happy is it when they carry up not only 
the message, but the fruits of good, and stay 
with the Ancient of Days to speak for us 
before his glorious throne. 



There are four things that come not 
back — the spoken word, the sped arrow, the 
past life, and the neglected opportunity. 

ARABIAN. 



W. BLAKE. 




JOHN MILTON. 



3 12 



Aovembet I, 



TJfo <rar/# mourneth and fadeth away. — 
Isa. xxiv. 4. 

" Green leaves dying into gold, 
Gold leaves basking in the light, 
And the sad year groweth old. 

" Like an angel company 
Gazing from the silent height, 
Gleaming in the sightless sky, 

w Sleep the leaves their golden sleep, 
Till the rough storm shock of death 
Bid the beechen glory weep, 

" And the red-veined whispering throng 
Tremble neath the Spirit's breath, 
'Neath his voice so soft and strong. 

" Hark, he calleth : Who shall go, 
Leaving golden life on high, 
Sinking to the deep below ? 

M Hark, he calleth : Is it I ? 
Thousand echoes. Is it I ? 
Quiver in the hollow 7 sky." 



1fto\>ember 2. 



3*3 



Put 071 therefore, as the elect of God, . . . 
long-suffering. — Col. iii. 12. 

All things are best fulfilled in their due time, 
And time there is for all things. 

MILTON. 

Lord ! who thy thousand years dost wait 

To work the thousandth part 
Of thy vast plan, for us create 

With zeal a patient heart 1 

NEWMAN. 

F^OLDED hands are not necessarily resigned 
* ones. The Patience who really smiles on 
grief usually stands or walks, or even runs. 

RUSKIN. 

" There is a sublimity to patience. In its 
highest forms it makes you think of God. 
To do a thing, and, when needed, to keep 
doing it — to wait for the desired end, not 
sluggishly, but diligently if necessary ; not 
despondingly, but ever with brave hope — this 
is grand character. Imitate your heavenly 
Father, in whom is grandest character. 
Some things cannot be done in a day. God 
does not make a sunset glory in a moment, 
but for days he may be massing the mist out 
of which he builds his palaces beautiful in 
the west. Labor patiently, looking to God 
for his highest success." 



3U 



llovembet 3, 



Every man shall bear his own burden. — Gal. 



Max is his own star ; and the soul that can 
Render an honest and a perfect man 
Commands all light, all influence, all fate ; 
Nothing to him falls early or too late. 
Our acts our angels are, or good or ill, 
Our fatal shadows that walk by us still." 



UR great and most difficult duty as 



social beings is to derive constant aid 
from society without taking its yoke ; to open 
our minds to the thoughts, reasonings, and 
persuasions of others, and yet to hold fast 
the sacred right of private judgment : to 
receive impulses from our fellow-beings, and 
yet to act from our own souls ; to sympathize 
with others, and yet to determine our own 
feelings ; to act with others, and yet to follow 
our own consciences ; to unite social def- 
erence and self-dominion ; to join moral 
self-subsistence with social dependence ; 
to respect others without losing self- 
respect ; to love our friends, and to rev- 
erence our superiors. 



vi. s. 




CHANNING. 



IHovember 4. 



315 



When my father and my mother forsake, 
me, then the Lord will take me up. — Psalm 
xxvii. 10. 

"Oh, Merciful One ! 
When men are farthest, then thou art most near ; 
When friends pass by me and my weakness shun, 

Thy chariot I hear. 
Thy glorious face is leaning toward me— - 

And its holy light 
Shines in upon my lonely dwelling place, 

And there is no more night.'" 



Thrice bless'd are they who feel their loneliness, 
To whom nor voice of friends nor pleasant scene 
Brings aught on which the sadden'd heart can lean — 

Yea, the rich earth, garb'd in her daintiest dress 

Of light and joy, doth but the more oppress, 
Claiming responsive smiles and rapture high, 
Till, sick at heart, beyond the veil they fly, 

Seeking His presence who alone can bless. 

NEWMAN. 



Watch with me, Jesus, in my loneliness ; 
Though others say me nay, yet say thou yes ; 
Though others pass me by, stop thou to bless. 

c. ROSSETTI. 

T OVE Him and keep him for thy friend, 
^ who, when all go away, will not forsake 
thee, nor suffer thee to perish in the end. 

THOMAS A KEMPIS. 



316 



IRovember 5. 



Every man according as he purposeth in his 
heart, so let him give j not grudgingly , or of 
necessity : for God loveth a cheerful giver. — 
2 Cor. ix. 7. 

Give all thou canst ! High Heaven rejects the lore 
Of nicely calculated less or more. 



IVE alms with a cheerful heart and 



countenance, " not grudgingly or of 
necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver" ; 
and therefore give quickly when the power is 
in thy hand, and the need is thy neighbor, 
and thy neighbor at the door. He gives twice 
that relieves speedily. jeremy taylor. 

We are not at all sure that we shall have 
any possessions, anything of our own, in the 
future life — anything, consequently, to give 
away. Perhaps it will all belong to all. So 
let us have enough of giving while we can, 
and enjoy the best part of possession. 



WORDSWORTH. 



We lose what on ourselves we spend ; 
We have as treasure without end 
W T hatever, Lord, to thee we lend, 



Who givest all ! 



C WORDSWORTH. 




JEAN INGELOW. 



IFlovember 6. 



317 



Thy kingdom co?ne. — Matt. vi. 10. 

The kingdom of God is not meat and dri?ik, 
but righteousness and peace> and joy in the Holy 
Ghost. — Rom. xiv. 17. 

" They whose hearts are whole and strong, 

Loving holiness, 
Living clean from soil or wrong, 

Wearing truth's white dress — 
They unto no far-off height 

Wearily need climb ; 
Heaven to them is close in sight 

From these shores of time." 

'"pHY kingdom come we pray ; but do we 



* ever pause and ask ourselves precisely 
what we mean by it? If the kingdom of the 
Master is to dawn at last, as most assuredly 
it will, amid this homely, common life of 
which your life and mine make up so integral 
a part, what can be plainer than that, in 
order to hasten it, it belongs to us to do any- 
thing and everything that will make that life 
clearer, nobler, freer, and more loving ? Oh, 
we are looking to find in some romantic call 
to distant climes, or to monastic renunciation, 
or to conspicuous self-sacrifice the means 
for hastening the Master's kingdom, when, in 
fact, those means are at our very doors in 
opportunities that invite us every day. 




HENRY C. POTTER, D. P, 



3i8 



1Rcremt>er 7. 



That no man go beyond and defraud his 
brother in any matter : because that the Lord is 
the avenger of all such. — i Thess. nr. 6. 

A STRAIGHT line is the shortest in 



Religiously keep all promises and cove- 
nants, though made to your disadvantage, 
though afterward you perceive you might 
have done better ; and let not any precedent 
act of yours be altered by any after accident. 
Let nothing make you break your promise, 
unless it be unlawful or impossible. 



M The power of honesty is so great that we 
love it even in an enemy." 

A cunning man is never a firm man, but 
an honest man is ; a double-minded man is 
always unstable, a man of faith is firm as a 

rock. EDWARD IRVING. 

Horace Greeley says, " The darkest day 
in any man's career is that when he fancies 
there is some easier way of getting a dollar 
than by squarely earning it." 




morals, as in mathematics. 



MARIA EDGE WORTH. 



JEREMY TAYLOR. 



1Flo\>emt>er 8. 



3*9 



Prepare to meet thy God, — Amos iv. 12. 
When the great ship of life, 

Surviving, though shattered, the tumult and strife 

Of earth's angry element — masts broken short, 

Decks drench'd, bulwarks beaten — drives safe into port , 

When the Pilot of Galilee, seen on the strand, 

Stretches over the waters a welcoming hand ; 

When, heeding no longer the sea's baffled roar, 

The mariner turns to his rest evermore, 

What will then be the answer the helmsman must give ? 

Not, How fared the soul through the trials she passed ? 
But, What is the state of that soul at the last ? 

OWEN MEREDITH. 

LET each day take thought for what con- 
' cerns it, liquidate its own affairs, and 
respect the day which is to follow, and then 
we shall be always ready. To know how to 
be ready is at bottom to know how to die. 

AMIEL. 

Life . . . is a tissue of thoughts, purposes, 
and feelings, which is growing stronger as it 
lengthens, so that the disinclination to pre- 
pare for death is growing every moment, 
while every moment the time for it les- 
sens. . . The waters of death are not waters 
of ablution, but rather do they give the color- 
ing and complexion to our destiny. They are 
not a slow and oblivious stream, but rather 
a rushing torrent that bears us away before 
we are aware, dr. dewey, 



320 



1Rov>ember 9. 



Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. 
— Luke xxiii. 46. 

Why shouldst thou fear the beautiful angel Death, 
Who waits thee at the portals of the skies, 

Ready to kiss away thy struggling breath, 
Ready with gentle hand to close thy eyes? 

ADELAIDE PROCTOR. 

Sunset and evening star, 

And one clear call for me ! 
And may there be no moaning of the bar 

When I put out to sea. 

For tho' from out our bourne of time and place 

The flood may bear me far, 
I hope to see my Pilot face to face 

When I have crossed the bar. 

TENNYSON. 

FATHER, into thy hands I commend my 
spirit." It is first of all a spirit that 
speaks — a spirit, not a body ; an immortal, 
an undying spirit. Oh, that we could rid our- 
selves of this inwrought and ineradicable pa- 
ganism which confounds us with our bodies! 
When I die may no friend lock my body in 
an iron casket to keep it from the worms. I 
wish we had adopted in this country the 
basket burial that was in use in England a few 
years ago. I wish my body might be laid in 
the basket and reverently covered with some- 
thing, that the earth might not fall close upon 
it, and then left for mother Nature to do her 
work, and out of it to call forth the grass and 
the flowers to bloom the next year and the 
years to come. lyman abf>ott, 



IHovembec 10. 



321 



But I would not have you to be ignorant, 
brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that 
ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 
— 1 Thess. iv. 13. 

" Through the drear day 
They often come from glorious light to me. 
I cannot feel their touch, their faces see, 
Yet my soul whispers, They do come to me ; 
Heaven is not far away." 

In life our absent friend is far away, 

But death may bring our friend exceeding near, 
Show him familiar faces long so dear, 

And lead him back in reach of words we say. 

He only cannot utter yea or nay 
In any voice accustomed to our ear, 
He only cannot make his face appear, 

And turn the sun back on our shadowed day. 

The dead may be around us, dear and dead ; 
The unforgotten dearest dead may be 

Watching us with unslumbering eyes, and heart 

Brimful of words which cannot yet be said, 

Brimful of knowledge they may not now impart, 
Brimful of love for you and love for me. 

CHRISTINA ROSSETTI. 

I KNOW nothing can make up for such a 
loss as yours. But you will stiil have love 
on earth all around you, and His love is not 
dead. It lives still in the next world for you 
and perhaps with you. For why should not 
those who are gone, if they are gone to their 
Lord, be actually nearer us, not farther from 
us, in the heavenly world. 

CHARLES KINGSLEV. 



322 



November 11* 



Whosoever liveth, and believeth in me } shall 
never die. — John xi. 26. 

Hence in a season of calm weather 

Though inland far we be, 

Our souls have sight of that immortal sea 
Which brought us hither, 
Can in a moment travel thither, 

And see the children sport upon the s or , 

And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore. 

WORDSWORTH. 

I feel my immortality o'ersweep 

All pains, all tears, all time, all fears, and peal 
Like the eternal thunder of the deep, 

Into my ears this truth — " Thou livest forever ! " 

BYRON. 

\\JYj go to the grave of a friend saying, 
* * A man is dead ; but angels throng 
about him saying, A man is born. 

BEECHER. 

Eternal life is to know God, and God is 
love. This is Christ's definition. Ponder 
it. This is life eternal that they might know 
thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ 
whom thou hast sent. Love must be eternal. 
It is what God is. . . Love never faileth, 
and life never faileth so long as there is love. 

DRUMMOND. 



IRovember 12. 



Be courteous.— -i Peter iii. 8. 

Knowledge and power have rights, 

But ignorance and weakness have rights too. 



ITHOUT a regard for things divine 



you will fail in your behavior toward 



A false estimate of what is high and what 
is low is a common source of bad manners as 
well as bad morals. There are some persons 
of culture and social standing who treat their 
equals with graceful ease and courtesy ; the 
few whom they regard as their superiors 
with exaggerated deference ; the many whom 
they count beneath them with calm insolence 
and utter disregard. This behavior they 
count proper from the higher to the lower, 
forgetting that insolence is always low. 
Learning is better than ignorance, but the 
learned are not always higher than the igno- 
rant. Since there is something in us above 
the intellect, the very learned may be very 
despicable. A refinement of taste which 
looks with scorn or indifference upon the 
vulgar is itself the essence of vulgarity. 



BROWNING. 




men. 



M. AUR. 



MARY EMILY CASE. 



3 2 4 



IRovember 13* 



The people is hungry, and weary, and thirsty 
in the wilderness. — 2 Sam. xvii. 29. 

And gavest them bread from heaven for their 
hunger. — Neh. ix. 15. 

" Ah, painter ! take thy brush, for life is short, 
And use the colors left thee — they are fair — 

But carry still the hunger at thine heart 
For that which is not there ; 

Henceforth upon thy pallet and my life 
One unfilled place lies bare." 

IF you want to know what the objective self 
of man is look at the conditions of food, 
power, truth, law, and beauty which environ 
him. The fish gets the water, the bird gets 
the air, the elephant gets the jungle ; but man, 
with a nature illimitable, with capacities in- 
exhaustible, with hunger deep as truth, with 
aspirations as wide as right, and with an 
ideal as unfathomable as beauty, is the child of 
the eternal God, and is to get the fullness of 
his nature in nothing less than the entire ex- 
pression which God has made of himself in 
objective reality. rev. j. w. lee, d. d. 

Your perpetual irritations, your fits of 
anger, your animosities, your jealousies, your 
gloomy, hypochondriac fears — these all at 
bottom are the disturbances of hunger in the 
soul. . . Three-quarters of all the ill nature 
of the world is caused by the fact that the 
soul, without God, is empty, and so out of 

rest. . . HORACE BUSHNELL. 



1ftov>ember 14, 



325 



I find then a law, that when I would do 
good, evil is present with me. — Rom. vii. 21. 

" Strive ! endeavor ! It profits more 

To fight and fail than on time's dull shore 

To sit an idler ever ; 
But to him who bares his arm to the strife, 
Firm at his post in the battle of life, 

The victory faileth never. 
* Therefore in faith abide,' 
Spake a low voice at my side, 

' Abide thou and endeavor/ " 

YOU have a higher and a lower nature : 
there is an Adam in you and a Christ in 
you. To strengthen the higher, to control 
the lower ; to enlist on the side of the higher 
every pure spiritual influence ; to help you to 
win the tranquil mastery over yourselves : 
this should be your aim. And to help you in 
it you must learn the prayer : 

God ! harden me against myself, 

This traitor with pathetic voice 

Who craves for ease and rest and joys ; 

Myself, worst traitor to myself. 

My hollowest friend, my deadliest foe, 

My clog whatever road I go. 

But schools and schoolmasters can never 
teach you this prayer unless they also teach 
you that 

One there is can curb myself, 

Can roll this strangling load off me, 

Break off my yoke and set me free. 

That one is Christ. canon farrar. 



326 



November 15* 



He that is of God heareth God's words. — 
John viii. 47. 



A touch divine 
And the scaled eyeball owns the mystic rod. 
Visibly through his garden walketh God. 

ROBERT BROWNING. 

WHAT He works in the souls of those 
with whom he holds direct converse 
none can say, nor can one give account of it 
to another, but he only who has felt it knows 
what it is. tauler. 

The possibilities of the material nature 
we are fast ascertaining, and may hope one 
day to fully explore and comprehend. But 
the possibilities of the spirit, of life as shaped 
by the spirit, who can divine? "It doth 
not yet appear what we shall be." We know 
not what the future has in store for the race. 
But when we compare the idea in our mind 
with the facts of life there opens to our 
thought an inexhaustible field of moral enter- 
prise, an interminable prospect of ends to be 
achieved and victories won. 

God be thanked for the limitless longing, 
the unquenchable hope ; for the unwritten 
leaves in the book of fate ; for the unknown 
wealth and incalculable powers of the inner 

life ! F. H. HEDGE. 



flovember \6. 



3 2 7 



Who for one morsel of meat sold his birth- 
right. — Heb. xii. 1 6. 

We barter life for pottage ! sell true bliss 

For wealth or power, for pleasure or renown ! 
Thus, Esau-like, our Father's blessing miss, 

Then wash with fruitless tears our faded crown. 
Our faded crown, despis'd and flung aside, 

Shall on some brother's brow immortal bloom ; 
No partial hand the blessing may misguide, 

No flattering fancy change our Monarch's doom. 
His righteous doom, that meek true-hearted love, 

The everlasting birthright should receive — 
The softest dews drop on her from above, 

The richest green her mountain garland weave ! 

KEBLE. 

WHAT is your birthright ? It is a body 
richly endowed with health and 
strength and capacity for happiness ; it is a 
mind thrilling with bright affinities for all 
things beautiful and high ; it is a spirit in 
which are folded the wings which can soar 
to heaven, and hold communion with the 
Divine. 

It is life : the innocent brightness of child- 
hood, the spring of youth, the force of man- 
hood, the snowy and sunlit heights of age. 
It is a happy death : for death is to God's 
children but the vision and the Sabbath of 
God. It is to enter the rejoicing streets of 
the New Jerusalem ; it is that everlasting 
felicity in which all God's redeemed u shall 
clasp hands in joy and bliss in over-measure 
forever." canon farrar. 



328 



November \7. 



My Father worketh hitherto \ and I work. — 
John v. 17. 



Have thy tools ready — 
God will find thee work. 

KINGSLEY. 

The work is short, 

The wages forever, 
The work like me, 

The wages like the giver. 

JOHN BUNYAN. 



HERE is no discredit, but honor in every 



1 right walk of industry, whether it be till- 
ing the ground, making tools, weaving fabrics, 
or selling the products behind the counter. 
A youth may handle a yardstick, or measure 
a piece of ribbon ; and there will be no dis- 
credit in doing so unless he allows his mind 
to have no higher range than the stick and 
ribbon — to be as short as the one, and as nar- 
row as the other. " Let not those blush who 
have" said Fuller, " but those who have not, 
a lawful calling.'* 



" To try to do other work than that to which 
God has adapted us is simply to break and 
ruin some of God's tools, and leave our work 
undone." 




SAMUEL SMILES. 



ftlovember 18, 



Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee, 
in whose heart are the highways of them. — 
Psalm lxxxiv. 5. 

Mine be the strength of spirit, full and free, 
Like some broad river rushing down alone ! 
Mine be the power which ever to its sway- 
Will win the wise at once — and by degrees 
May into uncongenial spirits flow. 

TENNYSON. 

WE need men in society who stand apart 
from the little fights, petty controversies, 
and angry contentions which seem to be part 
and parcel of daily life, and who shall speak 
great principles, breathe a heavenly influ- 
ence, and bring to bear upon combatants of 
all kinds considerations which shall survive 
all their misunderstandings. 

JOSEPH PARKER. 

The history of a man is his character. 

GOETHE. 

" A good character shines by its own light." 

" Difficulties may intimidate the weak, but 
they act only as a wholesome stimulus to 
men of pluck and resolution. All experience 
of life, indeed, serves to prove that the im- 
pediments thrown in the way of success may, 
for the most part, be overcome by steady 
conduct, honest zeal, activity, perseverance. " 



IRovember \9. 



Come over into Macedonia and help us. — 
Acts xvi. 9. 

" Lift a little— lift a little ! 

Many they who need thine aid, 
Many lying on the roadside 

'Neath misfortune's dreary shade. 
Pass not by, like priest and Levite, 

Heedless of thy fellow-man ; 
But with heart and arms extended 
Be the good Samaritan." 

Oh, strengthen me, that while I stand 
Firm on the rock and strong in Thee, 

I may stretch out a loving hand 
To wrestlers with the troubled sea. 

F. R. HAVERGAL. 

; T ET us take care how we speak to those 
^ who have fallen on life's field. Help 
them up, not heap scorn on them. We do 
not know the scars." 

He is good that does good to others. If 
he suffers for the good he does he is better 
still ; and if he suffers from them to whom he 
did good he has arrived at that height of 
goodness that nothing but an increase of his 
suffering can add to it ; if it proves his death 
his virtue is at its summit — it is heroism 
complete. bruyere. 



November 20. 



33i 



He shall cover thee with his feathers, and un- 
der his wings shall thou trust. — Psalm xci. 4, 

I know not where His islands lift 

Their fronded palms in air, 
I only know I cannot drift 

Beyond his love and care. 



He give his angels charge of those who sleep : 
But he himself watches with those who wake. 



ASTE not your time in fears and 



* y thoughts of the future in this world. 
To you the future may be short. The things 
you most fear will probably never disturb you. 
If evils come they will probably be such as 
no foresight of man can anticipate." 

A man's business is just to do his duty ; 
God takes upon himself the feeding and the 

Clothing. GEO. MAC DONALD. 

Day and night, going out and coming in, 
say to yourselves, I am with God my Father, 
and God my Father is with me. 

CHARLES KINGSLEY. 



WHITTIER. 



For whom the heart of man shuts out 
Sometimes the heart of God takes in. 



LOWELL. 



H. E. H. KING. 




332 



flopembec 21, 



Should est thou not also have had compassion 
on thy fellow- servant \ even as I had pity on 
thee /—Matt, xviii. 33. 

14 There is no God," the foolish saith ; 

But none, " There is no sorrow " ; 
And nature oft the cry of faith 

In bitter need will borrow. 
Eyes which the preacher could not school 

By wayside graves are raised, 
And lips say, God be pitiful ! " 

Which ne'er said. " God be praised ! u 



Pity makes the world 
Soft to the weak and noble to the strong. 

EDWIN ARNOLD. 

Teach me to feel another's woe. 

To hide the fault I see ; 
That mercy I to others show, 

That mercy show to me ! 



OUCHED by the love of Christ . . . 



* compassion will gain for us again its 
true meaning. We shall minister to the weak 
and the erring, not in condescending pity, 
but as enabled to share evils which are 



Be pitiful, O God! 



MRS. BROWNING. 



POPE. 




indeed our own. 



WESTCOTT. 



" His mercy endureth forever." 



IRovember 22. 



333 



Fret not thyself. . . Trust in the Lord 
and do good. — Psalm xxxvii. i, 3. 

" Cast, foolish sense, 

Thy cares all hence, 
That sunk in hopeless sorrow else would leave thee ; 

Salvation see, 

Full, perfect, free ! 
For with the Son thy God shall all thing's give thee." 

ANXIETY and worry are the friction of 
the soul, irritating, disorganizing, and 
wearing out the delicate machinery of life. 
They dim the brightness and sour the sweet- 
ness of what might otherwise be the happiest 
life. They repel sympathy, alienate friend- 
ship, and destroy love. They are productive 
of no good, and work only evil, both to self • 
and others." 

" Worrying is one of the greatest draw- 
backs to happiness. Most of it can be avoided 
if we only determine not to let trifles annoy us, 
for the largest amount of worrying is caused 
by the smallest trifles. " 

Do not look forward to what may happen 
to-morrow ; the same everlasting Father who 
cares for you to-day will care for you to- 
morrow and every day. Either he will shield 
you from suffering or he will give you 
unfailing strength to bear it. 

FRANCIS DE SALES. 



334 



ttovembet 23. 



Be content with such things as ye have. — 
Heb. xiii. 5. 

Pale care, avaunt ! 

I'll learn to be content 
With that small stock Thy bounty gave or lent. 

HERRICK. 

MAKE the best of what you have. The 
fullest life is not so full of good things 
as it would be if it reaped all the harvest of 
good within its reach. Our frailty is in 
reaching out toward the impossible and the 
distant. Sunday School Times, 

"A good many people spend all their life 
hunting for a place in this world that they 
were never intended to fill. They never 
settle down to anything with any sort of 
restful or contented feeling. What they are 
doing now is not by any means the work that 
is suited to their abilities. They have a 
sunny ideal of a very noble life which they 
would like to reach, in which their powers 
would have free scope, and where they could 
make a very bright record. So they go on 
discontented with their own lot, and sighing 
for another ; and while they sigh the years 
glide away." 

As for a little more money and a little 
more time, why, it is ten to one if either one 
or the other would make you a whit happier. 

BEN J. FRANKLIN. 



IRovembec 24, 



335 



We all do fade as a leaf. — Isa. lxiv. 6. 
The fashion of this world passeth away. — 
i Cor. vii. 31. 

There's not a joy the world can give like that it takes 
away 

When the glow of early thought declines in feeling's 
dull decay ! 

'Tis not on youth's smooth cheek the blush alone 

which fades so fast, 
But the tender bloom of heart is gone ere youth itself 

be past. 

Though wit may flash from fluent lips, and mirth dis- 
tract the breast, 

Through midnight hours that yield no more their 
former hope of rest ; 

'Tis but as ivy leaves around the ruin'd turret wreathe, 

All green and wildly fresh without, but worn and gray 
beneath. 

" There is nothing true but heaven. " 

WHAT is the world, and what the things 
of the world ? Scripture and experi- 
ence teach us that they are like a mirage in 
the wilderness — bright, enchanting, full of 
promise, ending only in scorching drought 
and glaring sand. In the famous vision of 
Mirza our moralist describes mankind chas- 
ing bubbles on a bridge of three-score and 
ten arches, which spans the rolling waters of 
a prodigious tide, and sinking through hidden 
trapdoors into the abyss in the midst of their 
vain chase. canon farrar. 



336 



November 25. 



The Lord God hath given me the tongue of 
the learned, that I should know how to speak a 
word in season to him that is weary. — Is a. 1. 4. 

Be useful where thou livest, that they may 

Both want and wish thy pleasing presence still ; 

Kindness, good parts, great places, are the way 
To compass this. Find out men's wants and will, 

And meet them there ! All worldly joys go less 

To the one joy of doing kindnesses. 



ALF a dozen lines of kindness may bring 



1 1 sunshine into the whole day of some sick 
person. Think of the pleasure you might 
give to someone who is much shut up, and 
who has fewer pleasures than you have, by 
sharing with her some little comfort or enjoy- 
ment that you have learnt to look upon as a 
necessary of life — the pleasant drive, the new 
book, flowers from the country, etc. Try to 
put yourself in another's place. Ask, " What 
should I like myself if I were hard worked, 
or sick, or lonely ? " Cultivate the habit of 
sympathy. g. h. Wilkinson. 




Kindness has converted more sinners than 
either zeal, eloquence, or learning. 

F. W. FABER. 



337 



Not as I will y but as thou wilt. — Matt. 
xxvi. 39. 

Not as I will ! The sound grows sweet 

Each time my lips the words repeat. 

Not as I will ! The darkness feels 

More safe than light when this thought steals, 

Like whispered voice, to calm and bless 

All unrest and all loneliness. H. H. 

And while we suffer let us set our souls 

To suffer perfectly, since this alone, 

The suffering which is this world's special grace, 

May here be perfected and left behind. 

H. E. H. KING. 

IF it was the will of God who made me and 
her, my will shall not be set against his — 
I cannot be happy, but I will bow my head, 
and let the waves and the billows go over me. 
If there is such a God he knows what a pain 
I bear. His will be done. Jesus thought it 
well that his will should be done to the death. 
Even if there be no God it will be grand to 
be a disciple of such a man, to do as he says, 
think as he thought — perhaps come to feel 
as he felt. geo. macdonald. 

Resignation — not to a whirlwind of inex- 
orable forces, not to a brutal fate or destiny, 
not to powers who cannot see or hear or feel, 
but to One who lives forever, and who loves 
us well, and who has given us all that we have, 
aye, life itself, that we may at his bidding give 
it back to him, liddon, 



33* 



November 27* 



With what measure ye mete, it shall be meas- 
ured to you agai?i. — Matt. vii. 2. 

"We shape ourselves the joy or fear 
Of which the coming life is made, 
And fill our future's atmosphere 
With sunshine or with shade. " 

/^OPPORTUNITIES fly in a straight line, 
touch us but once, and never return, but 
the wrongs we do others fly in a circle ; they 
come back to the place from which they 
started. t. dewitt talmage. 

All things are double, one against an- 
other. — Tit for tat ; an eye for an eye ; a 
tooth for a tooth ; blood for blood ; measure 
for measure ; love for love. — Give and it shall 
be given you. — He that watereth shall be 
watered himself. — What will you have ? quoth 
God. Pay for it and take it. — Nothing ven- 
ture, nothing have. — Thou shalt be paid 
exactly for what thou hast done : no more, no 
less. — Who doth not work shall not eat. . . 
If you put a chain around the neck of a slave 
the other end fastens itself around your 
own. — Bad counsel confounds the adviser. 

EMERSON. 



November 28, 



339 



No thought can be withholden from thee. — 
Job xlii. 2. 

Innocence is strong, 
And an entire simplicity of mind 
A thing most sacred in the eye of Heaven. 

WORDSWORTH. 

WHAT is there that man can form, what 
scepter or throne — what structure of 
ages — what empire of widespread dominion — 
can compare with the wonder and the gran- 
deurs of a single thought ? dr. dewey. 

The divine code proves its divine origin 
by forbidding that crime of guilty thoughts 
which are to human judgment seats impal- 
pable. To it thoughts are as real acts. It 
says, therefore, among the thunders of Sinai, 
Seeing thou hast to deal with God and not 
with man : " Guard well thy thoughts, for 
thoughts are heard in heaven." And how 
awfully necessary is it that it should be so ! 
For every sin that man can commit begins, 
begins only, begins always, in an evil thought. 

CANON FARRAR. 

As Emery Ann said once about thoughts : 
"You can't hinder 'em any more than you 
can the birds that fly in the air ; but you 
needn't let 'ena light and make a nest in your 
hair." mrs. a. d, t, whxtney. 



34o 



IRovember 29. 



Be ye thankful. — Col. iii. 15. 

Of whom what could He less expect 
Than glory and benediction — that is thanks ! 
The slightest, easiest, readiest recompense 
From them, who could return him nothing else. 

MILTON. 

Some murmur when their sky is clear 

And wholly bright to view, 
If one small speck of dark appear 

In their great heaven of blue. 
And some with thankful love are filled 

If but one streak of light, 
One ray of God's good mercy, gild 

The darkness of their night. 

TRENCH. 

AUR faces ought to reflect back the sun- 
shine of heaven, and the joyful tones of 
our voices to seem the echo of its hallelujahs. 

F. P. COBB. 

Every moment of time bears an errand of 
mercy, and should not be allowed to pass 
without an acknowledgment of gratitude. 

CRAFTS. 

What shall I give Thee for all these thou- 
sands of benefits ? I would I could serve 
thee all the days of my life ! 

THOMAS A KEMPIS t 



IRovembeu 30. 



34i 



Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light 
unto my path. — Psalm cxix. 105. 

" One of the sweet old chapters 
After a day like this ; 
The day brought tears and trouble, 
The evening brings no kiss. 

'* No rest in the arms I long for — 
Rest and refuge and home ; 
Grieved and lonely and weary, 
Unto the book I come. 

" One of the sweet old chapters, 

The love that blossoms through 
His care of the birds and lilies 
Out in the meadow dew. 

" His evening lies soft around them, 
Their faith is simply to be ; 
Oh, hushed by their tender lesson, 
My God, let me rest in thee ! " 

UNDER the guidance of the inward illu- 
minator, a fresh meaning will be given to 
texts that you have listened to a hundred 
times before. . . The Bible will seem more 
and more not so much a formal treatise 
on religion as a letter of love sent from an 
unseen and infinite friend to your soul. 

j. M. BELL. 

The Bible is the record of the experiences 
of men into whose souls God has come. 

LYMAN ABBOTT. 



3-P 



December !♦ 



A RUSSIAN LEGEND. 

The Russian peasants tell to-day 
A legend old and dear to them, 

How, when the wise men went their way 
To find the Babe at Bethlehem, 

They paused to let their camels rest 
Beside a peasant's lowly door ; 

And, all intent upon their quest, 

They talked their sacred errand o'er. 

" Come with us," said the eager three — 

" Come seek with us the heavenly Child ; 
What prouder honor can there be 
- ; For mortals, sinful and defiled ? 

"And bid each child in Sunday clothes 
Bring of his treasures the most rare, 

Bundles of myrrh and whitest doves, 

With ointment for the Christ king's hair. 

"Who knows what blessing may befall 
If they but touch his garment's hem ? 

And only once for them and all 

Will Christ be born in Bethlehem ! " 

" Alas ! I have so much to do," 
The mother answered, with a sigh ; 

"I cannot journey now with you, 
But I will follow by and by." 

The wise men frowned and rode away, 
Leaving the children all aglow, 

And pleading through the busy day, 

" When may we go ? when may we go ? " 



December 2. 



343 



And while their cheeks flushed rosy red, 
They shouted in a chorus sweet, 

" And may we touch his pretty head ? 
And may we kiss his blessed feet? " 

But women still will bake and brew, 
No matter what sweet honors wait ; 

And petty tasks they still must do, 
Though angels tarry at the gate ! 

And when the frocks are sewn with lace, 
And tied with ribbons smart and trim ; 

When each tear-stained and tired face 
Was bathed and tied its hood within ; 

When the small rooms were cleanly swept, 
And chairs set primly in a row, 

Betokening a house well kept — 
Then wearily she turned to go. 

The sky was purpling in the west, 
The silent night was hurrying on ; 

The three wise men had onward pressed, 
The star from out the east had gone ! 

What could the foolish mother do ? 

She turned her footsteps home again ; 
And never, all her sad life through, 

Did she behold the three wise men. 

Alas ! through weak delaying she 
Her sweetest privilege had missed ; 

Nor did her children ever see 

The holy Babe they might have kissed. 

MAY RILEY SMITH. 



344 



December 2, 



For ye know how that afterivard, when he 
would have inherited the blessing, he was re- 
jected : for he found no place of repentance \ 
though he sought it carefully with tears. — Heb. 
xii. 17. 

Oh, that word regret ! 

There have been nights and morns when we 

have sighed, 
" Let us alone, regret ! We are content 
To throw thee all our past, so thou wilt sleep 
For aye." But it is patient, and it wakes ; 
It hath not learned to cry itself to sleep, 
But plaineth on the bed that it is hard. 

JEAN INGELOW. 

AFTERWARD "— ah ! how into that word 
>. " afterward " is crushed the unutter- 
able bitterness of many myriads of lives ! 
It is the word which men force God to use. 
" Yet will I bring one more plague upon 
Pharaoh ; afterward he will let you go." 
Afterward ? Ah ! why not before that last, 
that fatal, irremediable plague ? 

CANON FARRAR. 

Every one of us is now exactly what his 
past life has made him. Our present thoughts, 
feelings, mental habits, good and bad, are the 
effects of what we have done or left undone 
of cherished impressions, or passions in- 
dulged or repressed, or pursuits vigorously 
embraced or willingly abandoned. 

DR. LIDDON. 



Becember 3. 



345 



Blessed is the man that trusteth i?i the Lord, 
and whose hope the Lord is. — Jer. xvii. 7. 

" Two sorrie thynges there be — 
Aye, three : 

A nest from which ye fledglings have been taken, 

A lamb forsaken, 
A petal from ye wilde rose rudely shaken. 

' * Of gladde thynges there be more — 
Aye, four : 

A larke above ye olde neste blithely singing, 

A wilde rose clinging 
In safety to ye rock, a shepherde bringing 

A lamb, found, in his arms — and 
Chrystmesse bells a-ringing." 

Though winter howleth at the gate, 
In our hearts 'tis summer still. 

EPES SARGENT. 

HOPE is on high within the veil, where 
Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. 
Grovel not in things below, among earthly- 
cares, pleasures, anxieties, toils, if thou 
wouldst have a good strong hope on high. 
Thou canst not soar to heaven and stoop to 
earth. Lift up thy cares with thy heart to 
God if thou wouldst hope in him. 

DR. PUSEY. 

"Such is the holdfast of him that hopes in 
God — as long as there is any breath he hopes. 
In the winter and deadest time of calamity 
hope springeth and cannot die." 



346 



December 4. 



Maki?ig melody in your heart. — Eph. v. 19. 

' 1 Our life is a song ; God writes the words, 
And we set them to music at pleasure ; 
And the heart grows glad or sweet or sad 
As we choose to fashion the measure. 

" We must write the music, whatever the song, 
Whatever the rhyme or meter ; 
If it be sad we can make it glad, 
If sweet, we can make it sweeter." 

Man who man would be 
Must rule the empire of himself ; in it 
Must be supreme, establishing his throne 
On vanquished will, quelling the anarchy 
Of hopes and fears — being himself alone ! 

SHELLEY. 

'Tis thus at the roaring loom of time I ply, 

And weave for God the garment thou seest him by. 

GOETHE. 

CXPECT no good from Jesus any farther 
*- 1 than you clothe yourself with excellence. 
He can impart nothing so precious as him- 
self, as his own mind ; this mind may dwell 
in you, his sublimest virtues may be yours. 
Admit, welcome this great truth. 

CHANNING. 



Has not the soul an end which nothing else 
can fulfill ? plato. 



December 5* 



347 



How oft shall my brother sin against me> and 
I forgive him 2 — Matt, xviii. 21. 

I bow before the noble mind 

That freely some great wrong forgives ; 

Yet nobler is the one forgiven 

Who bears that burden well and lives. 

ADELAIDE PROCTOR. 

The more we know the better we forgive ; 
Whoe'er feels deeply feels for all who live. 

MME. DE STAEL. 

"CORBEARING one another, and forgiving 
r one another ; if any man have a quarrel 
against any, even as Christ forgave you y so 
also do ye," — even as, exactly as, is the mean- 
ing of the original ; exactly as Christ forgave 
you, so forgive ye others. Read the story of 
his life ; read how he forgave those who were 
driving the nails into his hands when he cried 
out, Father, forgive them, for they know not 
what they do. . . Read the story of your 
own life, and see what Jesus Christ has done 
for you in attempting to reclaim you and 
recover you, to bring you to repentance, to 
inspire in you a desire for a new life ; and 
then look at that man you will not speak to, 
at that acquaintance from whom you turn 
aside, saying, " I will forgive, but I never can 
forget or, " I do not wish him injury, but I 
never want to speak to him again," and put 
your forgiveness alongside the forgiveness of 
Jesus Christ. lyman abbott. 



348 



©ecember 6. 



Woe unto the7n that are wise in their own 
eyes, and prudent in their own sight. — Is a. v. 21. 

Mind not high things, but condescend to men 
of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits. 
— Rom. xii. 16. 

We are wrong always when we think too much 
Of what we think or are. 



HINK as little as possible about any good 



1 in yourself ; turn your eyes resolutely 
from any view of your acquirements, your in- 
fluence, your plan, your success, your follow- 
ing — above all, speak as little as possible 
about yourself. The inordinateness of our 
self-love makes speech about ourselves like 
the putting of a lighted torch to the dry wood 
which has been laid in order for burning. . . 
Again, be specially upon the watch against 
those little tracks by which the vain man 
seeks to bring round the conversation about 
himself, and gain the praise or notice which 
his thirsty ears drink in so greedily. 



MRS. BROWNING. 




BISHOP WILBERFORCE. 



" Self-made men are very apt to worship 
their maker." 



December 7* 



349 



My presence shall go with thee, and I will 
give thee rest. — Ex. xxxiii. 14. 

Through burden and heat of the day- 
How weary the hands and the feet, 

The labor with scarcely a stay 
Through burden and heat ! 
Tired toiler, whose sleep shall be sweet, 

Kneel down — it will rest thee to pray ; 
Then forward, for daylight is fleet. 

Cool shadows grow lengthened and gray, 
Cool twilight will soon be complete, 

What matter the wearisome way 
Through burden and heat ? 

CHRISTINA ROSSETTI. 

MOW shall we rest in God? By giving 
* * ourselves wholly to him. If you give 
yourself by halves you cannot find full rest. 
There will ever be a lurking disquiet in that 
half which is withheld. 

JEAN NICOLAS GROU. 

None but the fully occupied can appreci- 
ate the delight of suspended, or rather of 
varied, labor. It is toil that creates holidays ; 
there is no royal road — yes, that is the royal 
road — to them. Life cannot be made up of 
recreations ; they must be garden spots in 
well-farmed lands. 

MRS. GILBERT ANN TAYLOR. 



35° 



December 8. 



That ye may approve things that are excellent; 
that ye may be sincere and without offense. — 
Phil. i. 10. 

Truth is not local — God alike pervades 
And fills the world of traffic and the shades, 
And may be feared amid the busiest scenes, 
Or scorned where business never intervenes, 

COWPER. 

NO man for any considerable period can 
wear one face to himself and another to 
the multitude without finally getting bewil- 
dered as to which may be true. 

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. 

" One schoolboy studies his lesson because 
he is conscientious about fulfilling a school- 
boy's task. Another studies because he is 
impelled by a conviction of the important 
bearing which his study is to have upon his 
own and the world's life. The one works 
because he has a certain " sense of duty " ; 
the other, because he has a deep-seated love 
of truth. The first motive works from the 
surface inward ; the second, from the heart 
outward. The first has no expanding, en- 
larging, propagating power ; the second is 
unlimited, for truth is infinite. The best way 
of cultivating a sense of duty is to cultivate a 
love of truth. " 



December 9. 



35 1 



Behold the handmaid of the Lord. — Luke i. 



The misson of woman on earth ! To give birth 
To the mercy of Heaven descending on earth. 
The mission of woman : permitted to bruise 
The head of the serpent, and sweetly infuse, 
Through the sorrow and sin of earth's registered curse, 
The blessing which mitigates all ; born to nurse, 
And to soothe and to solace, to help and to heal 
The sick world that leans on her. 



We'll keep our aims sublime, our eyes erect, 
Although our woman hands should shake and fail. 



H, that our women may not forget wherein 



lies the hiding of their power ! It is not 
in splendor of gifts, nor in successful compe- 
tition, nor in the achievement of social or ar- 
tistic or intellectual eminence ; it is in the 
grandeur of self sacrificing love, in the sweet- 
ness and self-forgetful tenderness of daugh- 
terhood and sisterhood and wifehood and 
motherhood. It is in these that men see her 
divineness and yield her the homage of their 
praise, the devotion of their hearts. 



38. 



OWEN MEREDITH. 



E. B. BROWNING. 




SAMUEL SMITH HARRIS. 



35 2 



December \o. 



And he sent all the t est of Israel every man 
unto his tent, and retained those three hundred 
men. And the host of Midian was beneath him 
in the valley. — Judges vii. 8. 

And he saw and behold the mountain was 
full of horses and chariots of fire. — 2 Kings 
vi. 17. 

Still through the cloven skies they come 

With peaceful wings unfurled, 
And still their heavenly music floats 

O'er all the weary world ; 
Above its sad and lonely plains 

They bend on hovering wing, 
And ever o'er its Babel sounds 

The blessed angel sings. 

E. H. SEARS. 

WHEN a good cause becomes popular, 
and majorities swing over to its sup- 
port, the work is substantially done. Prob- 
ably some new cause is then coming to birth 
underneath. Every cause which God origi- 
nates starts with only Gideon's three hun- 
dred. . . In spiritual affairs the balance of 
power does not depend on members. Votes 
have very little to do with it. It depends on 
spiritual forces. It depends on insight into 
the spiritual wants of the world, on conse- 
cration to God's service, on the power of 
prayer, on spiritual discovery of the side on 
which God is, and especially on intensity of 
Christian character. Austin phelps. 



December ll. 



353 



Things which are seen were not made of 
tilings which do appear. — Heb. xi. 3. 

What now if Spirit and God are the 
Thought which is written out plain 

On the great page of the world, and 
Your method of seeking is vain ? 

w. SMITH. 



ET a man believe in God, and not in 



*^ names and places and persons. Let the 
great soul incarnated in some woman's form, 
poor and sad and single, in some Dolly or 
Joan, go out to service and sweep chambers 
and scour floors, and its effulgent daybeams 
cannot be muffled or hid, but to sweep and 
scour will instantly appear supreme and beau- 
tiful actions, the top and radiance of human 
life, and all people will get mops and brooms, 
until lo, suddenly the great soul has enshrined 
itself in some other form and done some other 
deed, and that is now the head of all living 
nature. emerson, 



Two worlds are ours, — 'tis only sin 

Forbids us to descry 
The mystic heaven and earth within, 

Plain as the sea and sky. 



KEBLE. 



354 



December 12. 



There came a traveler unto the rich man, and 
he spared to take of his own flock and of his own 
herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was 
come unto him j but took the poor man's Iamb. — 
2 Sam. xii. 4. 

My very thoughts are selfish, always building 

Mean castles in the air ; 
I use my love of others for a gilding 

To make myself look fair. 
Alas ! no speed in life can snatch us wholly 

Out of self's hateful sight ! 



AN mostly does as he pleases, and he is 



11 capable of being pleased to sacrifice the 
peace and happiness of years for momentary 
ecstasy ; aye, for the sake of pride or prej- 
udice, or spite or wilfulness he is capable of 
sacrificing and betraying honor or principle, 
a fortune or a world, his soul, his heaven, his 

God. SAMUEL SMITH HARRIS. 

One thing is clear to me, that no indul- 
gence of passion destroys the spiritual nature 
so much as respectable selfishness. 

GEO. MACDONALD, 



FABER. 




December 13. 



355 



He is despised and rejected of men. — Is a. 
liii. 3. 

And the birds knew Him, and the fields and flowers, 
But his world knew him not. 

EDWIN ARNOLD. 

To the still wrestling of the lonely heart 

He doth impart 
The virtue of his midnight agony, 

When none was nigh 
Save God and one good angel. 

KEBLE. 

\ A 70ULD they crucify Him again, sir?" 

* * " No, they would only laugh at him 
now. . . They would only laugh at him, shake 
their heads at what he told them, as much as 
to say it wasn't true, and sneer and mock at 
him in some of the newspapers." 

GEO. MACDONALD. 

They who are most like Christ will be least 
understood by the world ; and where we see 
one whose holiness we know much misunder- 
stood, it seems a token the more of his espe- 
cial nearness to our Lord. dr. pusey. 

All that Christ asked of mankind where- 
with to save them was a cross whereon to die. 

LAMENNAIS. 



35 6 



December 14* 



He giveth grace unto the lowly. — Prov. iii. 34. 

" The lowly spirit God hath consecrated 
As his abiding rest ; 
An angel by some patriarch's tent hath waited 
When kings had no such guest." 

A VISITOR to Amsterdam wished to hear 
the wonderful music of the chimes of St. 
Nicholas, and went up into the tower of the 
church to hear it. There he found a man 
with wooden gloves on his hands, pounding 
on a keyboard. All he could hear was the 
clanging of the keys when struck by the 
wooden gloves, and the harsh, deafening 
noise of the bells close over his head. He 
wondered why people talked of the marvel- 
ous chimes of St. Nicholas. To his ear there 
was no music in them, nothing but terrible 
clatter and clanging. Yet all the while there 
floated out over and beyond the city the most 
entrancing music. Men in the fields paused 
in their work to listen and were made glad. 
People in their homes and travelers on the 
highways were thrilled by the marvelous bell 
notes that fell from the chimes. 

There are many lives which to those who 
dwell close beside them seem to make no 
music. They are shut up in narrow spheres. 
They dwell amid the noise and clatter of 
common task work. They appear to be only 
striking wooden hammers on rattling, noisy 
keys. j. R. MILLER, 



December 15. 



357 



Do not ye after their works : for they say, and 
do not. — Matt, xxiii. 3. 

Only add 

Deeds to thy knowledge answerable ; add faith, 

Add virtue, patience, temperance ; add love : 

. . . Then wilt thou not be loath 

To leave this paradise, but shalt possess 

A paradise within thee, happier far ! 

MILTON. 

\ A 7 HAT had the life of Jesus been to us, if 
* * we had only the records of his sermons 
without the record of his going about doing 
good ? I think the everyday life of Jesus 
touches the human heart more than the great 
truths which he uttered. 

BISHOP SIMPSON. 

For all the other pleasures substitute con- 
sciousness that you are obeying God, and 
performing not in word, but in deed, the duty 
of a wise and good man. epictetus. 

Conviction, were it never so excellent, is 
worthless till it convert itself into conduct. 

CARLYLE. 

Action is the word of God ; thought 
alone is but his shadow. They who disjoin 
thought and action seek to divide duty, and 
deny the eternal unity. mazzini. 



358 



December \6. 



But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, 
that his deeds may be made manifest, that they 
are wrought in God,— John iii. 21. 

NEVER value anything as profitable to 
thyself which shall compel thee to break 
thy promise, to lose thy self-respect, to hate 
any man, to suspect, to curse, to act the 
hypocrite, to desire anything which needs 
walls and curtains. marcus aurelius. 



" No one will ever know it " — so argues the 
subtle tempter. But the answer is, " Get 
thee behind me, Satan." Though none ever 
know it I shall know it — God will know it ; 
it will lie forever like a spark of fire upon my 
agonizing conscience; the sense of it will 
humiliate me ; the guilt of it will drag down 
my life. Nothing becomes too bad for 
human beings, young or old, who have once 
lost utterly their self-respect. From that 
moment they fall headlong from their true 
estate, and they are miserably conscious of it. 

CANON FARRAR. 



If you would not be known to do a thing 
never do it. A man may play the fool in the 
drifts of a desert, but every grain of sand 
shall seem to see. emerson. 



December 17* 



359 



Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now 
have I kept thy word. — Psalm cxix. 67. 

Show me the path ! I had forgotten Thee 
When I was happy and free, 

Walking down here in the gladsome light of the 
sun ; 

But now I come and mourn. Oh, set my feet 
In the road to thy blest seat ! 

And for the rest, O God, thy will be done ! 

JEAN INGELOW. 

'Tis not the calm and peaceful breast 
That sees or reads the problem true ; 

They only know on whom 't has prest 
Too hard to hope to solve it too. 

CLOUGH. 

WE must not think we need only to be 
supported under our affliction. Those 
who are pressing forward to a better country 
will not rest unless they are also sanctified by 
it — unless each successive wave that passes 
over them sweeps from their souls some of 
the dross of earth and leaves some gift of 
heaven in its room, so that the 4 changes and 
chances of this mortal life ' shall be ever 
lifting them farther from the earth and nearer, 
ever nearer, to the land of everlasting peace." 

Misfortune has few riddles for those who 
believe that the sole design of Providence is 
the perfecting of mankind. 

MME. SWETCHINE. 



360 



December 18, 



Let my heart be sdund. — Psalm cxix. 80. 
TEVER a sincere word was utterly lost. 



1 ^ Never a magnanimity fell to the ground. 
Always the heart of man greets and accepts 
it unexpectedly. A man passes for what he 
is worth. What he is engraves itself on his 
face, on his form, on his fortunes, in letters of 
light which all men may read but himself. 
Concealment avails him nothing, boasting 
nothing. There is confession in the glances 
of our eyes, in our smiles, in salutations ; 
and the grasp of hands. His sin bedaubs 
him, mars all his good impression. Men 
know not why they do not trust him ; but 
they do not trust him. His vice glasses his 
eye, demeans his cheek, pinches the nose, 
sets the mark of the beast on the back of the 
head, and writes, " Oh, fool ! fool ! " on the 
forehead of a king. emerson. 

Be what you wish others to become. Let 
yourself and not your words preach for you. 

AMIEL. 

The most precious thing that you and 
I have, my brother and sister, is what we are. 

j. e. RANKIN. 




December 10. 



361 



The law of his God is in his heart, — Psalm 
xxxvii. 31. 

'"pHE laws of society are to be deduced 



* from the truths of revelation which con- 
stitute society. These, it will be seen, are 
summed up, as was said of old, in the formula, 
" Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 
When men get through framing laws for the 
regulation of human conduct from a study of 
the facts of human nature, they will find to 
their amazement that they have reinstated 
the ten commandments, and that Sinai is not 
a burnt-out volcano. They will find that the 
ten commandments are still the foundations 
of social health and harmony and progress. 
God wrote them for Moses on tables of stone 
because he had already written them in the 
nature of man. rev. j. w. lee, d. d. 

The blind one sees the invisible. . . Con- 
science is sight. VICTOR HUGO. 

If our Lord God will be our judge, what 
are jurists to him ? . . . I understand noth- 
ing of law, but am lord of the law in things 
touching the conscience. 




MARTIN LUTHER. 



362 



December 20. 



Love beareth all things, believeth all things, 
hopeth all things, endureth all things. — 1 Cor. 
xiii. 7. 

Love is a virtue for heroes, as white as the snow on 

high hills, 

And immortal — as every great soul is that struggles, 



" Beloved, let us love one another," says St. John, 

Eagle of eagles calling from above — 
Words of strong nourishment for life to feed upon. 
" Beloved, let us love." 

More sunny than sunbeams that ever yet shone, 

Sweetener of the bitter, smoother of the rough, 
Highest lesson of all lessons for all to con — 
" Beloved, let us love." 

CHRISTINA ROSSETTI. 



OODXESS and love mold the form into 



their own image, and cause the joy and 
beauty of love to shine forth from every part 
of the face. When this form of love is seen 
• it appears ineffably beautiful, and affects with 
delight the inmost life of the soul. 



A more glorious victory cannot be gained 
over another man than this — that when an in- 
jury began on his part the kindness should 



endures, and fulfills. 



E. B. BROWNING. 




SWEDE NB ORG. 



begin on ours. 



TILLOTSON. 



December 21. 



363 



Set your ?nind on things thai are above. — 
Col. iii. 2. (R. V.). 

/ will set no base thing before my eyes. — 
Psalm ci. 3. (R. V.). 

We needs must love the highest when we see it. 

TENNYSON. 

Faults in the life breed errors in the brain, 
And these reciprocally these again ; 
The mind and conduct mutually imprint 
And stamp their image in each other's mint. 

COWPER. 

AUR safety is in having lofty ideals, and 
in constant labor to secure their real- 
ization. Let the getting of money be a 
man's ideal, and he will of necessity grow 
toward the dust. Joseph parker. 

If it is right to thank God for a beautiful 
thought, — I mean a thought of strength and 
grace giving one fresh life and hope, — why 
should one be less bold to thank him when 
such thoughts arise in plainer shape — take 
such vivid forms to the mind that they seem 
to come through the doors of the eyes into 
the vestibule of the brain, and thence into 
the inner chambers of the soul ? 

GEO. MACDONALD. 



3 6 4 



December 22, 



J shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy 
likeness. — Psalm xvii. 15. 

And we, O Lord, thine image are, 

Stamp'd in thy mint divine ; 
Oh, grant us grace to give to thee 

The coinage that is thine. 

C. WORDSWORTH. 

THE sun comes in March to the earth and 
whispers to it, and says, O Earth, give 
forth thy bud and thy blossom and thy 
waving fields of grain. And the earth says, 
I cannot, I cannot ; I am bound with frost, 
and all my brooks are icy, and I am covered 
with snow. And the sun says, I will take 
away the snow, and I will open the brooks, 
and I will unbind the chains of frost. And 
the earth says, But I am a dead-cold earth ; 
there is nothing in me. And the sun says, 
You are mistaken ; all the harvests of the 
future are in you, all the possibilities of the 
orchard are in you, and I will bring them 
forth out of you. You are sons of God, and 
all the harvesting and all the orchard fruit 
and all the spring glory of love and patience 
and forgiveness and enduring kindness — they 
are all in you, because you are the children 
of God, and all will be made manifest if God 
works in you and you work with God. 

LYMAN ABBOTT. 

The worlds He made out of nothing, but 
man out of himself. james martineau. 



December 23* 



365 



For noiu we see through a glass, darkly j but 
then face to face : now I know in part, — 
1 Cor. xiii. 12. 

"God alone 
Discerns thine own 
And the hearts of all mankind." 

T LOVE all men. I know at bottom they 
* cannot be otherwise ; and under all the 
false and overloaded and glittering masque- 
rade there is in every man a noble nature 
beneath, only he cannot bring it out ; and 
whatsoever he does that is false and cunning 
and evil there still remains the sentence of 
our great example, " Forgive them, for they 
know not what they do." auerbach. 

I find that it conduces to my mental health 
and happiness to find out all I can which is 
amiable and lovable in those I come in con- 
tact with, and to make the most of it. It may 
fall very short of what I was once wont to 
dream of, but it is better than nothing. It 
keeps the heart alive in its humanity, and till 
we shall be all spiritual this is alike our duty 
and our interest. Moravian, 



3 66 



December 24, 



The people which sat in darkness saw a great 
light j and to them which sat in the regio?i and 
shadow of death light is sprung up. — Matt. 
iv. 16. 

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth 
peace. — Luke ii. 14. 

There is silence high in the midnight sky, 
And only the sufferers watch the night ! 

But long ago there was song and glow, 

And a message of joy from the Prince of Light. 



The star that shone in Bethlehem 

Shines still, and shall not cease, 
And we listen still for the tidings 
Of glory and of peace. 

ADELAIDE PROCTOR. 



EAR by year He sets himself before us a 



1 little Child, in great humility, and bids us 
become like him, that when he appears again 
in his glorious majesty we may again be 
made like him. Year by year, through his 
holy nativity, he calleth us to behold him, and 
crieth, by his very speechless infancy, " Take 
my yoke upon you, and learn of me ; for I 
am meek and lowly in heart ; and ye shall 
find rest unto your souls." 



J. R. HAVERGAL. 




PR. PUSEY, 



December 25. 



367 



A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 

It chanced upon the merry, merry Christmas 
eve, 

I went sighing past the church across the 
moorland dreary — 
u Oh ! never sin and want and woe this earth 
will leave, 

And the bells but mock the wailing rounds, 
they sing so cheery. 
How long, O Lord, how long before thou 
come again ? 
Still in cellar and in garret and on moor- 
land dreary 
The orphans moan, and widows weep, and 
poor men toil in vain, 
Till earth is sick of hope deferred, though 
Christmas bells be cheery." 

Then arose a joyous clamor from the wild 
fowl on the mere, 
Beneath the stars, across the snow, like clear 
bells ringing, 
And a voice within cried : Listen ! • Christmas 
carols even here ! 
Tho' thou be dumb, yet o'er their work the 
stars and snows are singing. 



3 68 



December 25, 



Blind ! I live, I love, I reign ; and all the 

nations through 
With the thunder of my judgments even now 

are ringing ; 
Do thou fulfill thy work but as yon wild 

fowl do, 

Thou wilt heed no less the wailing, vet hear 
through it angels singing. 



RAW near to us, thou blessed Saviour ! 



even as thou didst draw near unto the 
world upon that joyful day which we celebrate, 
so draw near to each soul to-day. May all thy 
messages be as angel-voices to us. May we 
hear the heavens crying unto the earth : and 
may the earth answer back again. Now, after 
so many years of light and knowledge, may 
men join with angels, and may the hearts of 
men be attuned to praise thee. And that we 
may praise thee, may we learn to love one 
another here upon earth, finding out that 
secret love which we shall give to thee and to 
thine own heavenly land." 

" And I heard a great voice out of heaven 
saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with 
men, and he shall dwell with them." 



CHARLES KINGSLEY. 




December 26, 



369 



But if we hope for that we see not, then do 
we with patience wait for it. — Rom. viii. 25. 

" Go work and pray." 
That was His order yesterday ; 
And should I dare to disobey ? 

Now his command 
Is wholly changed : he bids me stand 
Aside, and watch his working hand. 



To-day his will 
Is spoken in these words, 4< Lie still." 
And shall I not his wish fulfill ? 

" Lie still — and pray ! " 
That is my Lord's command to-day ; 
And I will do his work his way. 

ANNA TEMPLE. 

" I AM not eager, bold, or strong — 
All that is past, 
I am ready not to do 
At last, at last." 

OATIENT waiting is often the highest way 
A of doing God's will." 

How patiently God works to teach us ! 
How long he waits for us to learn the lesson ! 

RUSKIN. 



God says, Give me time and trust, and 
you shall not wait in vain, Cecil. 



37° 



December 27* 



Called to be saints. — i Cor. i. 2. 



Who shall dare make common or unclean 
What once has on the holy altar been ? 

NEWMAN. 

"Few years, no wisdom, no renown, 
Only my life can I lay down ! 
Only my heart, Lord, to thy throne 

I bring, and pray 
That child of thine I may go forth, 
And spread glad tidings through the earth, 
And teach sad hearts to know thy worth. 

Lord, here am I," 

\ A TE need to get this matter of consecra- 
* * tion down out of cloudland into the 
region of actual, common daily living. We 
sing about it and pray for it and talk of it in 
our religious meetings, ofttimes in glowing 
mood, as if it were some exalted state with 
which earth's life of toil, struggle, and care 
had nothing whatever to do. But the conse- 
cration suggested by the living sacrifice is 
one that walks on the earth, that meets life's 
actual duties, struggles, temptations, and sor- 
rows, and that falters not in obedience, fidel- 
ity, or submission, but follows Christ with love 
and joy wherever he leads. 

J. R. MILLER. 



December 28. 



37i 



She hath done what she could. — Mark xiv. 8. 

The highest duties oft are found 

Lying on the lowest ground, 

In hidden and unnoticed ways, 

In household works, on common days ; 

Whate'er is done for God alone, 

Thy God acceptable will own. 

MONSELL. 

TF I do what I may in earnest I need not 
* mourn if I work no great work on the 
earth. To help the growth of a thought that 
struggles toward the light ; to brush with 
gentle hand the earth stain from the white of 
one snowdrop — such be my ambition ! 

GEO. MACDONALD. 

It may not be ours to utter convicting 
arguments, but it may be ours to live holy 
lives. It may not be ours to be subtle and 
learned and logical, but it may be ours to be 
noble and sweet and pure. 

CANON FARRAR. 

" What she could " — not what she could 
not do — not what she thought might be done — 
not what she would like to do — not what she 
would do if she had more time — not what 
somebody else thought she ought to do — but 
" what she could." w, a, shipman, 



372 



December 29. 



He endured as seeing him who is invisible. — 
Heb. xi. 27. 

Patient endurance 
Attaineth to all things. 

SANTA TERESA. 

THERE is in man a higher than love of 
happiness: he can do without happiness, 
and instead thereof find blessedness ! Was 
it not to preach forth this same higher that 
sages and martyrs, the poet and the priest, in 
all times, have spoken and suffered, bearing 
testimony, through life and through death, of 
the Godlike that is in man, and how in the 
Godlike only is strength and freedom ? 
Which God-inspired doctrine art thou also 
honored to be taught ? O Heavens ! and 
broken with manifold merciful afflictions, even 
till thou become contrite and learn it ! Oh, 
thank thy destiny for these ; thankfully bear 
what yet remain — thou hast need of them ; 
the self in thee needed to be annihilated. By 
benignant fever-paroxysms is life rooting out 
the deep-seated chronic disease, and triumphs 
over death. On the roaring billows of time 
thou art not engulfed, but borne aloft into 
the azure of eternity. Love not pleasure : 
love God. This is the everlasting yea, 
wherein all contradiction is solved — wherein 
whoso walks and works it is well with him. 

Carlyle, 



December 30. 



373 



And thou shall remember all the way which 
the Lord thy God led thee. — Deut. viii. 8. 

Born in rejoicing- and cradled in hope, 
Pointing new paths for adventurous feet, 

Promising power with the future to cope, 
Whispering low of the summer-time sweet, 

Camest thou hither. Now nearing thy bier, 

What dost thou leave us, oh, vanishing year ? 

SIDNEY GREY. 



One step more and the race is ended ; 

One word more and the lesson's done ; 
One toil more and a long rest follows 
At set of sun. 

CHRISTINA ROSSETTI. 

^THE year was old that day. The patient 
* year had lived through the reproaches 
and misuses of its slanderers, and faithfully 
performed its work. Spring, summer, au- 
tumn, winter— it had labored through the 
destined round, and now laid down its weary 
head to die. Shut out from hope, high im- 
pulse, active happiness itself, but messenger 
of many joys to others, it made appeal in its 
decline to have its toiling days and patient 
hours remembered, and to die in peace. 

CHARLES DICKENS. 



374 



December 31, 



THE OLD YEAR'S BLESSING. 

I brought good desires, 
Though as yet but seeds ; 
Let the new year make them 
Blossom into deeds. 

I brought joy to brighten 

Many happy days ; 
Let the new year's angel 

Turn it into praise. 

If I gave you sickness, 

If I brought you care, 
Let him make one patience 

And the other prayer. 

Where I brought you sorrow, 
Through his care at length, 

It may rise triumphant 
Into future strength. 

If I brought temptation, 

Let sin die away 
Into boundless pity 

For all hearts that stray. 

May you hold this angel 

Dearer than the last, 
So I bless his future, 

While he crowns my past. 

ADELAIDE PROCTOR. 



There's a new foot on the floor, my friend, 
And a new face at the door, my friend, 
A new face at the door. 

TENNYSON. 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Abide in Me, February 7. 

Age, Old, March 14, September 8. 

All Equal, April 10. 

All Things Work for Good, October 26. 

Aspirations, January 23, March 26, April 2, June I2> 

October 10. 
As Thou Wilt, November 26. 

Beautiful, Mission of the, August 13. 
Betrothal, September 5. 
Best, What is, October 23. 
Birthright, Selling the, November 16. 
Blessings, July 31. 

Blessings, The Old Year's, December 31. 

Bread, Daily, July 24. 

Bravery, May 10. 

Brotherhood, January 9, July 14. 

Building, January 1, March 7, August iS. 

Care, God's, March 31, April 14, August 16, Novem- 
ber 20. 

Christ, The Indwelling, March 28, July 19. 
Christ as One that Serveth, March 27. 
Christ Our Light, August 21. 
Christ Our Healer, July 20. 
Christ's Touch, February 24. 
Christus Consolator, April 1. 
Christmas, December 24. 
Consolation, May 9. 

377 



37 8 1Tn&e£ of Subjects 



Christmas Carol, December 25. 
Childhood, Sanctified, July 23. 

Character, March 1 1, July 3, September 18, Novem- 
ber 18. 

Church, The, March 5, June 16, October 15. 

Comfort, October 8 . 

Communion, September 15. 

Conceit, October 4, December 6. 

Conflict, January 7, July 16, September 25. 

Consecration, February 22, December 27. 

Consolation, January 15, May 9. 

Courtesy, November 12. 

Creature, A New, September 24. 

Cross, The, August 5. 

Death, November 9. 

Death, Preparations for, November 8. 

Deeds, May 23. 

Deeds, Common, February 11, May 31. 
Deeds, Not Words, March 23, December 15. 
Defeat, June 25. 

Despised and Rejected, December 13. 
Do Good, May 5, September 22. 
Doctrine, October 16. 
Doubt, May 7. 
Diligence, April 15. 

Duty, January 12, March 16, September 10, Octo- 
ber 14. 

Duties, Small, July 18, August 27, October 30. 
Dwelling Place, The Lord Our, January 6, June 19. 

Education, March 20. 

Endurance, April 24, September 14, December 29. 

Fading Leaf, The, November 1. 
Faith, March 2, June 6. 
Faithfulness, September 26. 
Fatherhood, May 21. 
Feel for the Woes of Mankind, July 28. 



Unbct of Subjects, 379 



Forgiveness, January 18, December 5. 

Flowers, August 2. 

Freedom, January 20, October 17. 

Friendship, January 22, February 26, September 3. 

Giving, January 10, February 3, September 20, No- 
vember 5. 

Goodness, The Soul of, September 17, December 23. 
God a Spirit, January 16. 
God Knows, July 9, October 19. 
God Love and Mother Love, May 1. 
Grace unto the Lowly, December 14. 
Growth, February 20, May 17, June 13, August 12. 
Greatness, True, May 26, October 22. 
Guidance, February 4, March 3, April 9, May 24, 
July 7, August 28. 

Harmony, July 17. 
Happiness, July 2. 
Heart of Man, January 23. 
Heart, Give Me Thine, April 20. 
Heaven, January 26. 
Heaven Our Home, July 6. 
Heavens, The, Declare, February 2. 
Heirship, September 30. 

Help, God Our, September 13, October 29, Decem- 
ber 10. 

Help One Another, November 19. 
Heroism, July 21. 

Hope, January 17, May 8, December 3. 
Hope Song, March 1. 
Home, September 7. 

Honesty, February 5, March 29, November 7. 

Humility, February 15, 16. 

Hunger of Soul, April 27, November 13. 

Ideals, January 14, May 12, August 14, October 27, 

December 21. 
Image, God's, May 13, September 23. 



3 8o 



ITnfcer of Subjects. 



Immortal Now, The, September I. 

Immortality, March 15, November ri. 

Influence, January 13, February 25, June II. 

In the Mist, August I. 

Inner Man, January 24, December 18. 

Insufficiency, February 12. 

Insight, Spiritual, April 3. 

Joy, April 26, October 5, March 19. 
Judgment and Retribution, July 25. 
Judging, February 27. 

Keep in the World, March 18. 

Kindness, June 4, November 25. 

Kindness to Animals, June 5. 

Kindness, Loving, May 18. 

Kindly Hand, The, March 24. 

Kingdom of Heaven, May 6, November 6. 

Kingdom of God, Seek First the, February 17. 

Knocking at the Door, August 24. 

Law, The, December 19. 
Legend, A Russian, December 1. 
Life, March 21, October 25. 
Life, God Our, June 20. 
Life, This Transitory, November 24. 
Life Through Death, July 22. 
Life, What We Make It, May 3. 
Living, Right, July 26. 
Light, The, of the World, October 9. 
Love, January 3, April II, July 5, August II, Septem- 
ber 4, December 20. 
Love, God's, June 7. 
Love, God's, Shown in Nature, May 25. 
Love of Christ, September 11. 
Love One Another, January 21, October 7. 
Love, Brotherly, April 16, July 14. 
Love, Home, June 17. 

Loneliness, February iS, April 13, November 4. 
Lowly Exalted, March 8. 



flnfces ot Subjecte. 3 Sl 



Marah, August 30. 

Marriage, September 6. 

Manhood, August 7, September 16. 

Meditation, March 4. 

Mercy, April 8. 

Mind, Contented, November 23. 
Mote, The, and the Beam, June 27. 
Motherhood, August 25. 

Nature, Glory of, May 30. 
Nature, Man's Dual, November 14. 
Nature, Man's Spiritual, August 6, October 6. 
Neighbor, May 16. 

Obedience, May 20, July 27. 
Over the Mountains High, July 1. 

Pardon, April 6, August 9. 
Path of Peace, The, February 1. 
Patience, May 15, August 26, November 2. 
Patriotism, July 4. 

Peace, April 12, August 20, October 2. 

Perfection, June 14. 

Persecution, May 14. 

Poor, The Blessed, March 9. 

Poor in Spirit, May 19. 

Possibilities, January 31, February 13, September 28. 

December 22. 
Piety, Home, April 23. 
Pity, November 21. 

Prayer, February 6, June 15, August 17, March 30. 
Prayer, Time for, October 18. 
Praise, May 29. 

Power, God's Revealing, February 8. 
Presence, The Indwelling, July 10. 
Progress, April 28, September 2. 
Purity, February 19, June 26, August 22. 

Rest, February 9, June 29, December 7. 
Recompense, The Law of, November 27. 



3 82 1Tn&e£ of Subjects, 



Regret, December 2. 

Responsibility, Individual, March 10, December 4. 

Resurrection, April 29. 

Religion, February 28. 

Religion, Practical, August 19. 

Realities, Unseen, December 11. 

Rule, The Golden, June 30. 

Self-control, January 5, June 24, August 31, October 12. 

Self-respect, December 16. 
Self-reliance, November 3. 
Selfishness, April 4, December 12. 

Self-sacrifice, January 25, February 10, June 9, Octo- 
ber 21. 
Sabbath, The, March 22. 
Science and the Bible, June 10. 
Scriptures, The, January 19, November 30. 
Sculptor of Souls, July 8. 
Secret, The, of the Lord, November 15. 
Service, January 11, July 11, October 24. 
She Hath Done what She Could, December 28. 
Sincerity, January 30, June 21, December 8. 
Side, The Bright, August 3. 
Shepherd, The, September 12. 
Sins, Little, September 9. 
Skill, February 21. 
Sleep, The, October 1. 

Sorrow, February 23, March 25, May II, June 22. 

August 10, December 17. 
Sowing, January 4, July 15, September 19, October 13. 
Spirit, The New, February 29. 
Spirit, The, Within, March 12. 
Speaking Evil, August 4. 
Strength, January 8. 
Suffer Little Children, May 27. 
Suffering, Silent, July 13. 
Spring, May 2. 
Summer, June 1. 
Sunrise, June 2. 



1Tnfce£ of Subjects* 



Temple of God, Ye are the, April 18. 
Temptation, February 14, March 13, May 4. 
Ties, Social, August 8. 

Time, Right Use of, January 27, October 3, 31. 
Thanksgiving, April 22, November 29. 
Thoughts of the Heart, August 23, November 28. 
Thought, Taking, June 18. 
Truth, April 7, July 29, October 20. 
Trust, March 17, April 30, July 30, September 
October 11. 

Unity, March 6, August 29, September 29. 
Unselfishness, April 5. 
Unseen, Presence of the, November 10. 
Usefulness, Quiet, May 28. 

Waiting, April 17, December 26. 
Water, The, of Life, September 27. 
Way, The, June 28. 
Woman, The Mission of, December 9. 
Words, January 29, April 19. 
Words, Christ's, June 23. 

Work, January 2, May 22, July 12, November 17,. 

Work for the Master, October 28. 

Work Out Your Own Salvation, April 25. 

Worry, November 22. 

World, The, Without God, August 15. 

Year, The Dying, December 30. 

Youth, June 8. 

Youth, Hopes of, June 3. 



